Congress Nearing Appropriations Deadline

YaMinco | September 23, 2011 at 12:56 PM
CWLA Children's Monitor

With the beginning of the new fiscal year just a away, Congress will not have time to complete action on all twelve appropriations bills, and will have to approve a short term continuing resolution (CR) in the meantime. Both chambers have worked on the various bills in some capacity, and earlier this week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY12 Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill, which allocates spending for discretionary health and child welfare programs and the agencies that oversee these programs. While most programs were flat funded, there were slight increases for the Promise Neighborhoods community transformation program and Head Start. Unfortunately, the bill included a $50 million cut to the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant. The accompanying report language points to future increases in the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, as offsets for reductions in Title V funding. The bill also confirms the elimination of the Mentoring Children of Prisoners program from FY 2011.

The House Appropriations Committee has postponed action on this bill, and it remains unclear when they plan to take up the measure. Congress will likely spend next week finalizing a CR that will temporarily fund these programs at their current levels and prevent a government shutdown.

http://childrensmonitor.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/congress-nearing-appropriations-deadline