Monday, November 28, 2005
Legislative Update...
Stop Congress from Delivering Coal for Christmas!
The Weeks Following Thanksgiving will be Critical to Keeping Child Care out of the Budget Cutting Bill.
Congress on Recess.
Over the next 2-3 weeks, Members of Congress will be in their home districts for Thanksgiving break. The House and Senate are scheduled to reconvene the weeks of December 5 and December 12, respectively. Once both chambers return to Washington D.C., a House-Senate conference committee will meet to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate budget reconciliation bills. In the interim period, Congressional staff will meet to negotiate with the intention of offering recommendations to Members when they return.
The Senate budget reconciliation bill cuts federal spending by $35 billion, without slashing federal assistance for low income families with children. The House bill cuts federal spending by $50 billion and contains deep spending cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps, Child Support, Supplemental Security Income-SSI, Foster Care, and other programs affecting low income families with children.
CCDBG at Stake! For CCR&Rs, one of the important most important differences between the two bills is the inclusion of TANF/CCDBG reauthorization in the House bill- but not the Senate bill. The House budget bill reauthorizes CCDBG by "increasing" mandatory funding by $500 million over the next five years. While this seems like a lot of money, and is a lot of money, this is billions below what is needed to keep pace with inflation and billions more below what is needed to comply with the new expanded work requirements under the TANF provisions contained in the bill. At this funding level, 330,000 children in low-income families will lose child care assistance by 2010.
Right now, the child care issue is completely under the radar screen. Yesterday, Congressional Quarterly- a political news source read by Members of Congress and their staff- released a list of ten key differences between the House and Senate Reconciliation bills. ChildCare and TANF Reauthorization were not even listed. If we don't get this issue on the radar screen, the House provisions could be tucked into the back of the budget bill with no public attention or debate.
Next week, NACCRRA will launch an all-out campaign to ramp up attention on this issue and persuade Congress to drop TANF and child care from the reconciliation conference. We will be asking CCR&Rs to do everything they can to put the heat on Members of Congress- make calls, attend community forums, and meet with Representatives in their districts.
Learn more about this on the NACCRRA website.
Stop Congress from Delivering Coal for Christmas!
The Weeks Following Thanksgiving will be Critical to Keeping Child Care out of the Budget Cutting Bill.
Congress on Recess.
Over the next 2-3 weeks, Members of Congress will be in their home districts for Thanksgiving break. The House and Senate are scheduled to reconvene the weeks of December 5 and December 12, respectively. Once both chambers return to Washington D.C., a House-Senate conference committee will meet to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate budget reconciliation bills. In the interim period, Congressional staff will meet to negotiate with the intention of offering recommendations to Members when they return.
The Senate budget reconciliation bill cuts federal spending by $35 billion, without slashing federal assistance for low income families with children. The House bill cuts federal spending by $50 billion and contains deep spending cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps, Child Support, Supplemental Security Income-SSI, Foster Care, and other programs affecting low income families with children.
CCDBG at Stake! For CCR&Rs, one of the important most important differences between the two bills is the inclusion of TANF/CCDBG reauthorization in the House bill- but not the Senate bill. The House budget bill reauthorizes CCDBG by "increasing" mandatory funding by $500 million over the next five years. While this seems like a lot of money, and is a lot of money, this is billions below what is needed to keep pace with inflation and billions more below what is needed to comply with the new expanded work requirements under the TANF provisions contained in the bill. At this funding level, 330,000 children in low-income families will lose child care assistance by 2010.
Right now, the child care issue is completely under the radar screen. Yesterday, Congressional Quarterly- a political news source read by Members of Congress and their staff- released a list of ten key differences between the House and Senate Reconciliation bills. ChildCare and TANF Reauthorization were not even listed. If we don't get this issue on the radar screen, the House provisions could be tucked into the back of the budget bill with no public attention or debate.
Next week, NACCRRA will launch an all-out campaign to ramp up attention on this issue and persuade Congress to drop TANF and child care from the reconciliation conference. We will be asking CCR&Rs to do everything they can to put the heat on Members of Congress- make calls, attend community forums, and meet with Representatives in their districts.
Learn more about this on the NACCRRA website.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:47 PM 
