| Greetings!
The big news for week 4 has to be Empowerment! On February 1st, the Governor kicked off the week with his weekly press conference and chose to talk about Empowerment and insisting on the move to the Dept of Education.
Then the Senate took up SF 2088 on Monday night. This bill had an amendment that made significant changes to Empowerment. It got a little crazy during debate. Sen. Nancy Boettger offered an amendment to keep the Community Empowerment program in the Department of Management, rather than moving it to the Department of Education, as originally proposed in SF 2088 . It ended up passing 30-20. The Democrats then went to a quick caucus, and a motion to reconsider was filed on that same amendment which then resulted in the defeat of the amendment by a vote of 23-27. You can see how your Senator voted both times on amendment S-5030 here (page 215).
On Wednesday, the House State Government Committee held a subcommittee meeting on the Empowerment portion of SF 2088. Many of you made the trip to the Capitol and provided excellent testimony!
On Thursday, the State Government Committee took up SF 2088. The House Republicans on the Committee offered the same amendment that Sen. Boettger had offered previously in the Senate. The amendment failed on a party line vote. Then Rep. Roger Wendt offered an amendment to the Empowerment language. This amendment changes a couple of things:
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Increase the number of citizens members on the advisory council to seven.
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Strike the requirement that local areas must use the AEA as the fiscal agent. They are allowed to designate another entity as long as that entity can meet state requirements.
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Adds language allowing an individual who holds a license in social work to be a family support educator.
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Provides some transition language.
On Monday of this week a public hearing was held on SF 2088 and over 300 individuals attended or tried to attend. It was a packed house. Once again, early childhood advocates turned out in full force. I did catch a story from Channel 13 news (in DM) about the public hearing and Empowerment reorganization was highlighted. I expect the bill to be debated in the House on Thursday and possibly as early as Wednesday.
The Dept. of Education has come out with a Frequently Asked Questions document about the proposed move of Empowerment into the Dept. of Education and a document regarding transition.
I anticipate the next couple of days of session this week to be quite entertaining!
Best ~
Sheila |
| BILLS |
 Quality Early Care and Education
HF 2069 - An Act authorizing persons who are relatives, friends, or neighbors to provide child care as unregistered child care home providers under certain circumstances. By Hagenow. Subcommittee, Mascher, Hunter, and Koester Companion bill SF 2084
Child Well-Being and Development
HSB 223 - (a bill from last year) A study bill for requiring certain health insurance contracts, policies, or plans to provide coverage for audiological services and hearing aids for children. UPDATE - passed Human Resourced Committe on 2/8. Eligible for debate in House.
Family Economic Success
HF 2127 - An Act modifying provisions relating to the regulation of delayed deposit services businesses, making penalties applicable, and including effective date provisions. Commerce: Wenthe, Helland, Kressig, Reasoner, and Sands.
SF 2235 - (formerly SF 2125) - An Act requiring provision of deliverable fuels to customers under specified circumstances, and including effective date provisions. UPDATE - passed State Gov't Committee - eligible for debate.
Other Important Bills:
SF 2088 - (formerly SSB 3030) - A study bill for an act concerning state government reorganization and efficiency, making appropriations, establishing fees, establishing criminal penalties, and providing effective and applicability provisions. UPDATE - see above section
SSB 3139 - An Act creating the early childhood Iowa initiative. Education. Subcommittee, Schmitz, Appel and Boettger. This is the Governor's bill on reorganizing Empowerment. Same language as in the Senate Reorg bill - SF 2088.
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Legislative Term of the Week:
Legislative Service Agency - A non partisan legislative agency that provides bill drafting, legal and research services, computer services, and assists the Legislature in the budgeting and appropriations process.
Quote of the Week:
"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."
Nelson Mandela |
At a Glance: Kids in the President's 2011 Budget
On February 2, 2010, President Obama released his fiscal year 2011 budget request. Below is a first look at how children fare in his budget request.
Children receive a raw increase of $20.55 billion over last year's levels
Total spending on children is up 9.86% (8.34% in real terms) over 2009 levels
Total Discretionary Spending is up by 6.14 billion, a 7.24% increase (5.7% in real terms)
President Obama's budget proposes a cap of $447 billion for non-security discretionary spending, equal to last year's funding level. Despite this freeze, the percentage of federal discretionary money spent on children's programs would increase under the President's request, rising from 18.96 percent in fiscal year 2010 to 20.34 percent in fiscal year 2011.
Total spending on children would amount to 1.94% of GDP, higher than at any point in the last five years.
CATEGORIES:
Health: Total Health spending is up by $5.92 billion (8.2% increase over 2010)
Education: Total Education spending is up by $7.07 billion (13% increase over 2010)
Child Welfare: Total child welfare spending is up by $70 million (.7% increase over 2010)
Nutrition: Nutrition is up $7.46 billion (13.8%)
Income Support: Income support is up $5.05 billion (8.4%)
SOME NOTABLE PROGRAM INCREASES: $10 billion increase over 10 years for child nutrition programs to support their reauthorization
$2.0 billion increase for Homeless Assistance Grants ($190 million increase from 2010)
$1.6 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, to a total of $6.644 billion
$989 million increase for Head Start and Early Head Start, for a total of $8.2 billion
NEW PROGRAMS:
$9.3 billion over 10 years for a new Early Learning Challenge Fund,
Home Visitation Program ( $124 million)
$1.35 billion to expand Race to the Top (Originally funded through ARRA)
$500 million for Investing in Innovation (Originally funded through ARRA)
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