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Greetings NACHSA Members!
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Federal Update:The House and Senate have recessed for their traditional August break and will return to Washington on September 9. Upon their return, they will have fewer than ten legislative days to agree upon a plan to continue funding for all federal programs and operations before the new federal fiscal year begins on October 1. At this point, it is all but certain that all 12 spending measures will be temporarily extended later into the fall. While the Senate Appropriations Committee has adopted Labor-HHS bill which rejects cuts proposed by the Administration, including cuts to CSBG, the House would spend nearly 26 percent less on HHS programs overall. Such a stark difference would be nearly impossible to reconcile.
Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) remains a hot button issue in the House. Even though the House was unable to adopt a farm bill containing deep SNAP cuts, and ultimately jettisoned the entire nutrition title before it adopted an agriculture-only bill, House GOP leaders announced before the break that they want to introduce a bill in September which would double the SNAP cuts they proposed previously. Even if that bill was adopted by the House, it would be very difficult to reconcile a nutrition bill with the Senate where the House cuts are ten times greater than that proposed by the upper chamber.
And, as they prepared to leave town, the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee adopted a WIA reauthorization bill (S. 1356) by a vote of 18-3. The bill is supported by the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and many business and labor groups. The Obama administration also signaled its support of the legislation. Unlike the very partisan House bill which consolidates 35 employment and training programs into a single block grant, the Senate bill maintains existing funding streams. It would also streamline and consolidate some administrative reporting procedures at the state and local level, as well as allow local boards to reduce their size by no longer requiring each and every one stop to be represented on it. The funding formula within each state would essentially remain unchanged. There is no schedule yet for Senate floor action. The House and Senate bills are so different, that it is difficult to predict how they would be reconciled.
Scholarships Available: NACHSA is pleased offer up to five scholarships to attend this fall's human services conference to be held by the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA). Slated for October 2-4 in Sacramento, CA, the conference --Transforming Culture, Embracing Change -- will continue the work done in recent years during CWDA's poverty symposiums and conferences, and will explore policies and strategies that best serve families across communities.
The scholarships include registration, meals provided during the conference, up to three nights lodging and roundtrip airfare to Sacramento. To learn more about the conference, click here. If you are interested in being considered for a scholarship, please contact Tom Joseph at tj@wafed.com to receive a brief application form.
Applications are due August 26.
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| Health Reform Resources | |
Interactive Tool Projects Local ACA Impact: Released this week, this Kaiser Family Foundation online tool provides detailed projections of the impact of the Affordable Care Act on Medicaid enrollment and the uninsured in local communities across the nation. It reveals substantial geographic variations in the law's impact. The tool's interactive maps allow users to identify communities that could experience the largest declines in the uninsured and where the remaining uninsured populations are likely to be concentrated, as well as to identify key local areas for enrollment outreach. Users can enter zip codes or place names to compare different states, counties, and localities, and to examine the characteristics of the changing Medicaid and uninsured populations by race, age, gender and language spoken at home, and to assess the impact of going forward with the optional Medicaid expansion for a state.
Young Adults Key to ACA Success: The success of the new health-care law depends in part on participation from young, healthy people whose premiums will help offset the costs of older or sicker people. This Wall Street Journal article provides a number of real examples of the costs of coverage for young adults.
New Animation Explains ACA Changes: Join the YouToons as they walk through the basic changes in the way Americans will get health coverage and what it will cost starting in 2014, when major parts of the ACA go into effect. Click here to view the seven minute cartoon, written and produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation and narrated by former ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson.
Obama's Last Campaign: Inside the White House Plan to Sell Obamacare: This Washington Post article is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the White House is working to entice a sufficient number of young and healthy adults into the new insurance marketplaces that open Oct. 1.
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| Human Services Resources |
HHS Agencies Release New Guidance on Child Trauma & Well-Being: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a letter in July encouraging the integrated use of trauma-focused tools and practices in child-serving settings. It discusses the appropriate role of psychotropic medications, and how other components such as functional assessment, trauma screening, mental-health assessment, evidence-based practices and individual outcome measurement can be used to provide better care. (17 pp.)
Foster Youth Payments to be Excluded From FAFSA: The US Department of Education has clarified that extended foster care payments made directly to foster youth are to be excluded when determining a student's financial aid eligibility for higher education and do not need to be reported as income on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Click here to read the letter.
HHS Releases Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) Report: Last week, HHS issued its FY 2010 report on states' use of SSBG. The largest amount of SSBG and TANF transfer funds went to foster care services and child protective services. State-by-state comparisons are available, and each state's expenditure charts are published, beginning on page 66.
Family Group Decision Making Brief: Developed by the National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families, this new fact sheet introduces the reader to the concept of family group decision-making and explores how it positively affects family and other interpersonal relationships.
HHS Issues FY 2010 TANF Expenditures Report: HHS has released its FY 2010 work participation rate reports and other TANF data. State-by-state tables may be viewed here. The HHS memo summarizing the report is found here.
Child Care Costs Outpace Minimum Wage: This Huffington Post infographic shows how child care costs continue to rise. It notes that in most states, single parent working a minimum wage job 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, doesn't earn enough to put two young children in a child care center, let alone cover other household expenses.
Number of Single Fathers Increased Ninefold Since 1960: The Pew Research Center recently issued this ten page report on the Rise of Single Fathers showing that a record 8% of households with minor children in the United States are headed by a single father, up from just over 1% in 1960. In comparison, the number of single mother households increased more than fourfold during that time period, up to 8.6 million in 2011, from 1.9 million in 1960.
Webinar -- Implementing the Uninterrupted Scholars Act: SPARC and the Annie E. Casey Foundation are holding a free webinar on August 7 from 1-2:00 pm EDT on Improving Education Outcomes for Youth in Care. The session will feature reports from two states - Florida and Pennsylvania - on their implementation efforts and will introduce the field to a model tool to support implementation efforts. Click here to register.
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Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators
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