Legislative Update

SCHIP Update

House - The SCHIP bill that was sent to the House Floor on Wednesday passed with a strong bipartisan vote of 289 to 139. (See a roll call of the vote.) Two Representatives, one of them being Iowa's Tom Latham, both of them Republicans, voted to override the President's veto in 2007 but voted against the current bill. The bipartisan vote is good news and hopefully a good sign for what to expect when SCHIP goes to the Senate Floor for a vote

Senate

On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee marked up its own version of an SCHIP bill, also largely based on what passed in 2007 and similar to the bill passed by the House, except that the "mark" (the Chairman's proposal) did not originally include the state option to cover legal immigrant children and pregnant women, ICHIA.

However, legal immigrant children and pregnant women were successfully added by amendment in the committee in a 12-7 vote with all Democrats and Senator Snowe (R-ME) voting in support. Senator Snowe (R-ME) offered an amendment to allow dental coverage of underinsured children as an option under SCHIP (i.e., children with private insurance who lack dental coverage). The Committee also accepted an amendment by Senator Grassley (R-IA) that requires states to verify the immigration status of legal immigrant children enrolled in the program at each renewal. This amendment could create an unnecessary barrier to keeping eligible children enrolled in coverage, but its impact will depend on the details of the final statutory language and any implementing regulations. No other amendments were accepted.

Ultimately, the bill was passed out of the Committee on a 12-7 vote with all the Democrats and Senator Snowe (R-ME) voting in support with the remaining Republicans voting against it.

Assuming that a bill passes the Senate, the House and Senate will need to resolve differences between the two bills. Like last year, there may not be a formal conference committee but instead a less formal attempt to resolve differences and re-pass legislation that can be sent to President Obama for his signature.

Economic Stimulus

On January 15th, the House of Representatives unveiled its economic recovery package, one of the first steps in efforts to spur the economy and protect the well-being of our country's children and families. The bill includes significant funds targeted to at risk children and families, making a smart, significant investment in our nation's future. Some highlights:

$2.1 billion for Head Start to provide comprehensive services to an additional 110,000 children; $1.1 billion of these funds have been designated for Early Head Start. Up to 10 percent of the Early Head Start funds is targeted for training and technical assistance and up to 3 percent is targeted for monitoring.
$2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to provide child care services to an additional 300,000 children.
$600 million in formula grants for Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to help states serve children with disabilities age 2 and younger.
$2.5 billion for TANF block grants to states to help deal with the surge in assistance in families needing assistance during a recession.
$87 billion for FMAP (medicaid aids to states)
$1 billion for LIHEAP to help low income families pay for home heating and cooling at a time of rising energy costs.

For more information on the House economic recovery package, read a summary or read the full bill text. A very general rule of thumb is to figure 1% of of each amount when figuring out how much Iowa would receive.

We are waiting for the Senate to act.