We've got one more round of updates for you before Congress takes off for their week-long July 4th recess. We'll be back in your inbox on Friday, July 13th. In the meantime, check out our latest
blog post and follow us on
Twitter!
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On this day in 1995...
The American space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir to form the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.
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The Latest from Congress...
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Senate:
On Thursday, the Senate passed its bipartisan Farm Bill
—
the
Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018
—
by a vote of 86 to 11. Some notable provisions of the bill include:
- Strengthening the relationship between employers and SNAP Employment and Training;
- Strengthening program integrity and access to healthy foods;
- Modernizing IT systems;
- Improving access for elderly and disabled households, while reducing administrative burdens; and
- Investing in a number of pilots and demonstrations to support good nutrition and health.
Considering the House and Senate Farm Bills are drastically different, each chamber will have to spend a significant amount of time working through them.
The main differences relate to the SNAP program, particularly as it relates to whether or not to significantly expand work requirements. The House version seeks to expand the work requirements while the Senate version would leave these requirements basically unchanged.
The current Farm Bill expires on September 30th.
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House of Representatives:
The debate over migrant children and family separations at the US border continues. On Wednesday,
The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act
(
H.R. 6136
)—considered to be the “compromise” immigration bill—failed to pass by an overwhelming vote of 121 to 301. This bill would have provided a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers as well as funding for a wall at the border. As
previously reported
,
the House also rejected a more conservative immigration measure last week.
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Federal Government Reorganization
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House of Representatives
: Last week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its government-wide
reorganization blueprint
. On Wednesday, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a
hearing
to examine the government-wide reorganization plan and to understand Congress’s role in evaluating and enacting the proposal.
OMB’s Deputy Director for Management, Margaret Weichert, was the sole witness at the hearing. Of particular interest is the proposed move of SNAP and other public benefits programs to HHS. Weichert explained that this move would benefit proposed enrollees and states by streamlining the process to ensure more money goes to "needy families" and is not spent on bureaucracies. In addition, Weichert referred to the reorganization as an attempt to address conflicting eligibility requirements, which have the potential to make it difficult to enroll into public benefits programs as well as vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
APHSA will be tracking the movement of the reorganization plan and will provide updates on this issue.
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House of Representatives
: As previously reported, House appropriators were set to markup a $117 billion Labor-HHS-Education spending bill this week. However, they postponed the markup until an unknown date after the July 4th recess. Despite progress made by Congress on spending bills this session, the decision to delay the bill was due to scheduling conflicts amid the arrival of the Defense spending bill (
H.R. 6157
)
on the House floor this week. There are still concerns about a number of healthcare policy riders, specifically those having to do with women’s health, that are causing many members to not support the bill. However, the bill still proposes a $1 billion increase in funding (total of $89.2 billion in discretionary funding) for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Senate:
On Thursday, in a 30-1 vote, the Senate Appropriations committee approved the $179.3 billion draft measure that would provide the Department of Health and Human Services with $90.1 billion in spending. Despite uncertainty in the House, Senators are optimistic about the bills fate on the Senate floor. The bill is considered to be a “bipartisan compromise” which attempts to avoid provisions that would deter the bill’s progress to the floor.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed the first minibus package,
H.R. 5895
—
a $146.6 billion spending package
—
which would fund Energy-Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs. It has now passed both chambers.
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House of Representatives
: The Administration would like to pursue a second round of tax cuts with the intent to permanently extend tax cuts that would expire after 2025 under the recently passed tax reform law. As a result, the Ways and Means Committee is expected to circulate a draft of a second tax reform package following the July 4th recess with hopes of a vote in the fall.
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The Latest from the Administration...
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Update on A
ctions Related to Migrant Family Separations
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As a follow-up to the President’s Executive Order to halt future family separations, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created an “unaccompanied children reunification task force” on Friday. The task force is charged with reunifying migrant children who have been separated from their families and are currently in HHS custody. It was established by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to respond to the complex issue that may arise when attempting to reunify thousands of families.
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Update on Executive Order on Travel Ban
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On Monday, in a 5 to 4 vote,
the Supreme Court upheld the President’s
Executive
Order
on travel ban
. The Executive Order imposes limits on travel into the U.S. from certain countries. Additionally, the President’s Executive Order raises the baseline for the vetting and screening of foreign nations.
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Interactive map
developed by the Urban Institute detailing U.S. cities’ mortgage data by race and ethnicity.
Article
about r
ethinking housing and community development to advance racial equity and inclusion
from Urban Institute's online resource,
How Housing Matters
.
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Report
from United Nations reviewing U.S. policies and programs addressing extreme poverty.
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The National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation released
A Roadmap for Action
addressing the opioid crisis.
A change in federal law now authorizes more than just law enforcement agencies to collect unused and unwanted pills.
Learn more.
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APHSA Issues Statement on Separation and Detainment of Children and Families at US Border
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APHSA and its members within public health and human services agencies nationally remain profoundly concerned about the well-being of children and families who unlawfully entered the United States—both those families currently separated and those who will be detained in a manner outlined in the President’s June 20 Executive Order. APHSA’s membership represents state and local child welfare agencies and we seek to ensure that the same standards of treatment and care for children in the United States are extended to migrant children in need of shelter and care.
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The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is seeking comments on Child Welfare Evidence-Based Practices. Comments must be received no later than August 24. Learn more and submit your comment(s)
here
.
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LAST CHANCE! ISM Fellowships
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IT Solutions Management for Human Services (ISM), an affinity group of APHSA,
is offering fellowships to the 2018 ISM Conference being held September 16-19 in Seattle, WA. Both full and partial travel fellowships are available to state and local government employees. Applications must be submitted by the end of the day
TODAY
!
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2018 NSDTA Annual Education Conference
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Registration for the 2018 National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA) Annual Education Conference is open! Being held September 30-October 3 in Columbus, OH, the conference is designed to assist health and human service leaders responsible for human services training, staff, and organizational development/effectiveness in shaping the future of these vital programs through collaboration, innovation, and the exchange of knowledge. Additional information is available
here
.
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2018 NAPIPM Annual Education Conference
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Registration for the 2018 National Association for Program Information and Performance Measurement (NAPIPM) Annual Education Conference is now open! Join us August 13-16 in Tampa, FL to learn and network with other dedicated professionals responsible for improving the performance measurement capabilities of health and human services. Topics include real-world innovations from leading experts at the federal, state, and local level, as well as the private sector; SNAP, Child Care, TANF, and Medicaid policy updates; and more! Additional information is available
here
.
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