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November 1, 2013

NACHSA e-Alert

 

Greetings NACHSA Members!

After weeks of partisan sniping over the budget, Congress has begun to move on a few legislative items. 

SNAP: This week, House and Senate Farm Bill conferees made opening statements that focused on finding common ground in reconciling the differences between the agriculture and nutrition sections of each bill. The Senate and House bills are very far apart on the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), with the House cutting it by $39 billion over ten years compared to the Senate's $4 billion mark. The vast majority of House savings would come from severely restricting categorical eligibility and terminating state waivers allowing states to serve childless adults for more than 3 months in any given 3 year period during times of high unemployment. The Senate has remained fairly clear on opposing those cuts. No schedule of future conference meetings has been announced.
 
Adoption Incentives: Since the last e-Alert, the House also passed, 402-0, the Promoting Adoption and Legal Guardianship for Children in Foster Care Act (H.R. 3205). The bill makes a number of important changes to the adoption program, including the way states may quality for incentives with a focus on improvements in rates rather than absolute numbers. Subsidized guardianship placements would also receive incentive payments, albeit at a lower payment ($1,000) than adoptions ($2,000). A new provision would enable successor guardians to continue to receive Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP) payments should a relative caregiver die or become incapacitated. And, the Family Connection Grants program would be extended for three years at the current funding level of $15 million annually. This summary provides additional information on the bill.  
 
The Senate has not considered a similar adoption incentives bill, but it has released a draft for comment and may act later this fall.

Older Americans Act: Also this week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee adopted a bipartisan bill (S. 1562) to reauthorize the Older Americans Act which funds programs administered by area agencies on aging. A summary of the legislation may be found here.

Budget Negotiations: And finally, House and Senate members of the budget conference met this week. Both parties appear to be unwilling to shut the government down again. The budget conference has until December 13 to arrive at a overall budget blueprint that both houses would have to adopt. The appropriations committees would then use the blueprint to craft the actual spending bills by the January 15 deadline. Both sides have confirmed that there is not enough time to tackle a bigger bill that would perhaps contain entitlement cuts or large increases in revenues.  
In This Issue
Health Reform Resources
Human Services Resources
Human Services Jobs
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Health Reform Resources
Medicaid Enrollment Increases Under ACA: Today's Washington Post has a story detailing how the vast majority of ACA enrollees to date are in Medicaid. 
Human Services Resources
Retailers Brace For Reduced SNAP: This  Wall Street Journal article notes that the November 1 cut in SNAP due to the termination of the Recovery Act's boost in benefits will not only be felt by consumers, but also grocers, including Wal-Mart which estimates that it cashes in about 18% of all SNAP benefits nationwide.  
 
SNAP Cuts Begin Today: This Center on Budget and Policy Priorities brief outlines the state-by-state impact of the expiration of the SNAP benefit boost. 

 

TANF Cash Benefits Continue to Fall: This Center on Budget and Policy Priorities brief includes state-by-state charts and notes that cash assistance benefits for the nation's poorest families with children fell again in purchasing power in 2013 and are now at least 20 percent below their 1996 levels in 37 states, after adjusting for inflation. Last year, just 25 out of every 100 poor families received TANF benefits, down from 68 families receiving TANF for every 100 in poverty in 1996. Page 11 has a state-by-state list of the level of TANF cash benefits over time and page 13 has a similar chart showing the benefit levels as a percentage of the federal poverty level. 

 

State Drug Tests for TANF Falter: This New York Times story notes that states' drug testing laws for TANF applicants have met with very limited success when enacted. In 2013, another 29 states considered drug testing for people who receive TANF, but only two measures passed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

 

Education Records of Children in Foster Care: The State PolicyAdvocacy and Reform Center has published this brief outlining collaboration between education agencies and the child welfare system. It also reviews the recently-enacted federal Uninterrupted Scholars Act.

 

Out of Foster Care, Into College: The New York Times ran this story on the bleak college prospects for foster youth but notes that there are indeed some successful programs to assist them. Links to initiatives in different states are provided. 

 

Enhancing Permanency for Youth in Out-of-Home Care: This HHS publication highlights successful models and strategies of foster youth permanency planning and reviews background statistics and outcomes.

 

Foster Care Placements Continues to Decline:  Over the last decade, the U.S. foster care population has undergone a substantial reduction in size and experienced a shift in its racial and ethnic composition. This HHS data brief summarizes those changes and provides new detail that identifies the geographic areas most responsible for these national trends. 

 

State Adoption Briefs Available: The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) has created state-by-state fact sheets on adoption. The fact sheets have information about the number of waiting children, the length of time children spend in care, the race of waiting and adopted children, types of exits from foster care, Title IV-E payments, and more. 

 

Interrupting Child Maltreatment Across Generations: The September issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health has numerous articles addressing the role of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and social contexts in the cycle of child maltreatment across generations. 

 

Webinar on The Uninterrupted Scholars Act --Promising Information-Sharing Practices: Enacted in January, the Uninterrupted Scholars Act will improve information sharing between child welfare and education workers. This November 14 webinar at 1 pm ET, is hosted by State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center (SPARC) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, together with the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education will cover promising information sharing practices. Register here.

Human Services Jobs
The Minnesota Department of Human Services is accepting applications for a Medicaid Director. Apply by November 5.

The County of Yuba, California is accepting applications for Director of Health and Human Services. Apply by November 15.  
 
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services is accepting applications for a Senior Deputy Director, Children & Family Services. 
Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators