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Greetings!
The House and Senate met very briefly this week and passed a couple of bills. The House passed SF 522 which deals with commercial property taxes and SF 525 which deals with the mental health system.
The House Appropriations Committee met on Tuesday and passed SF 533 - the Standings Bill. Last week, I sent out an update that the Senate had passed SF 533 with the following:
- increases EITC from 7% to 10% of federal level
- provides for a 2% increase in allowable growth (includes funding for current preschool program)
- cuts AEAs by $10 million
- provides funding for Shared Visions at FY 11 level
Well, now just erase all of those because the House took out the EITC and allowable growth increase and cut Shared Visions by 6 million and preschool by 45 million. They also cut AEA's an additional 10 million. It was a frustrating committee meeting as it seemed there was very little regard for early childhood programs from the majority party. Their actions weren't a surprise but very disappointing to say the least.
The Senate debated and passed HF 645, the Education appropriations bill, with a strike all amendment. There were not any changes from the last time I updated you on that bill when it passed out of the Appropriations committee.
The Senate also passed HF 649, the HHS appropriations bill with a strike all amendment. There were not any changes from the last time I updated you about this amendment, also.
The approps bills now move back to the House. We should have a conference committee on these bill or they may wait until the negotiations are worked out before discussing the bills again. It appears all sides are not any closer than they were a couple of weeks ago. The new fiscal year starts on July 1 - only seven week from now.
The Senate plans to debate SF 534 (abortion facility bill) on Monday- this bill has been getting a lot of media attention and took up much of the Senate time on Thursday. At this time, we are unsure as to what else the Senate may work on and whether or not the House members will return next week.
Please continue contacting your legislators - keep up the pressure!
On another note, I hope you all can join me in thanking my colleague, Carrie Fitzgerald, for all she has done for children's health in our state. She has been a great advocate and voice for children! I wish her well and best of luck at her new position with First Focus in Washington, DC.
Have a nice weekend!
Stay in touch ~ Sheila |
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Federal Budget
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Mother's Day Event
On Saturday May 7, Iowa mothers and fathers stood in the Show House of the Botanical Center to ask members of Congress to protect the supports they need to make a better life for themselves and their kids: reliable, high-quality child care; accessible, affordable health care; high-quality education; available fair-paying jobs; and the assurance of affordable college for their kids in the future. (Event hosted by CFPC). |
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Bills of Interest
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SF 525 - Reorganizing the state mental health system in Human Services Committee. -passed Senate on 4/20.
SF 404 - -An act relating to health information technology. Passed Senate March 15th.
SF 295 - An Act relating to donation of newborn umbilical cord blood. Subcommittee, Bolkcom, Boettger, and Jochum. Passed Senate on March 14th.
SF 31 - An Act increasing the amount of the earned income tax credit and including retroactive applicability provisions. Passed out of subcommittee on 2/10.
SF 113 - pay day loan institutions - reducing interest rate to 36%. Passed Subcommittee 2/24. On to full Committee
SF 508 - An Act relating to state and local financial matters by revising certain appropriations and appropriating federal funds made available from federal block grants and other non state sources, allocating portions of federal block -passed both Houses
HF 645 - An Act relating to the funding of, the operation of, and appropriation of moneys to the college student aid commission, the department for the blind, the department of education.
HF 649 - An Act relating to and making appropriations for health and human services and including other related provisions and appropriations, and including effective, retroactive, and applicability date provisions
SF 525 - An Act relating to county and state responsibilities for mental health, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities services for adults and children, making appropriations, and including effective date provisions.
 Bills Signed By Governor:
HF 562 - an act relating to the child abuse registry. 4/6/11
HF 45 - An Act relating to public funding and regulatory matters and making, reducing, and transferring appropriations and revising fund amounts and including effective, retroactive, and other applicability date provision. 3/1/11. SF 209 - increases the state earned income tax credit, creates a new tax relief fund, coupling and bonus depreciation language. Governor vetoed portions of bill. 4/21. SF 482 - makes proposed technical changes. Includes provisions on child care resource and referral agencies. 4/28 |
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"There's nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child."
Frank A. Clark
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Child Health Update
by Carrie Fitzgerald
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), today approved the State Flexibility Act of 2011, H.R. 1683, by a vote of 14 to 9.
Please see the blog post from Georgetown's Center for Children and Families to gain an understanding of what this could do to children's health coverage.
On the eve of today's mark up in the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, CBO released a more detailed cost estimate of H.R. 1683, the bill to repeal the Medicaid and CHIP stability protections (aka, "maintenace-of-effort requirements"). It highlights that the debate over the future of the stability protections is very much about our children - repealing the protections could decimate CHIP and potentially lead to an unraveling of the nation's record-breaking success in covering kids. Here is what CBO specifically says about the estimated impact of repealing the stability protections on kids.
- In the next few years, up to 400,000 people a year will lose Medicaid or CHIP coverage, mostly because states will set up new administrative barriers to enrollment. Two out of three of those losing coverage will be kids.
- As we head into broader implementation of health reform in 2014 and beyond, CBO finds that H.R. 1683 will have an increasingly harsh impact on CHIP. By 2016, half of states will entirely eliminate their CHIP programs and the remaining states will scale back coverage for children.
- By 2016, 1.7 million children lose CHIP. Of these kids, 300,000 will become uninsured, while 700,000 will go into exchange coverage and 700,000 into employer-based insurance. The coverage that children receive will not necessarily be even close to as good as CHIP. As CBO says, families "would be required to pay a larger share of the cost for insurance through exchanges as compared to CHIP."
Carrie
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