McDermott Bill: “Bipartisan Child Welfare Bill Passes House”

McDermott Bill: “Bipartisan Child Welfare Bill Passes House”


McDermott Bill: “Bipartisan Child Welfare Bill Passes House”
For Immediate Release: June 1, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, the House passed with bipartisan support legislation to improve the child welfare system, authored by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA). The legislation would allow the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to grant waivers for state demonstration projects to test innovations in child welfare programs.

“At-risk children and families often fall through the cracks and don’t get the services they need from our child welfare system,” said Congressman McDermott. “Some states are ready to develop the next generation of reforms to give this vulnerable population the attention and opportunity they deserve.”

The legislation is titled, “To Renew the Authority of the Department of Health and Human Services to Approve Demonstration Projects Designed to Test Innovative Strategies in State Child Welfare Programs” (H.R. 1194; see “Background” below for more details). The bill would allow states to build on the historic “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act,” which McDermott also authored and was signed into law in 2008. Under the legislation, interested states could, with federal approval and oversight, develop and test innovative strategies to improve services for at-risk children and families. States could focus on priorities such as early intervention, domestic violence, and kinship guardianship.

“These waivers would build upon the Fostering Connections Act – we knew then that different approaches would work for different states and this legislation will give states the ability to test innovative programs,” said McDermott. “I am particularly excited to see Washington State’s innovations to help vulnerable children. Additional resources and improvements will be needed to serve all children and families at risk.”

The legislation that passed the House yesterday evening will now be referred to the Senate, where Senators Baucus (D-MT), Hatch (R-UT), Enzi (R-WY) and Rockefeller (D-WV) recently introduced similar bipartisan child welfare waiver legislation.

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Background Information on the Child Welfare Legislation

●The legislation (H.R. 1194) was co-sponsored by Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), introduced to the House on March 17, 2011, and referred to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means and Committee on Budget. Waiver legislation was the subject of a Ways and Means’ Human Resources Subcommittee hearing on July 29, 2010.

●The legislation would extend child welfare waiver authority for six years beginning Fiscal Year 2011.

●The authority for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to approve new child welfare waivers expired in 2006, but there are currently waivers in seven states (CA, FL, IL, IN, OH, OR, and WI) that began demonstrations before then. Congressional action is necessary to give HHS the authority to approve new waivers.

●Since the enactment of the child welfare waiver authority in 1997, twenty-three states have implemented demonstrations involving a variety of service strategies, including subsidized guardianship, flexible funding, services for parents with addictions, adoption and post-permanency services, and intensive preventive services.

●The Congressional Budget Office confirmed in the last Congress that this legislation has no cost, as waivers can only be approved if states demonstrate to HHS that their proposed changes will be cost-neutral.

●The legislation would ensure state accountability for use of child welfare funds, and rigorous evaluation of state innovations by independent experts.

●Senators Baucus, Hatch, Enzi and Rockefeller introduced their own child welfare waiver legislation, the “State Child Welfare Innovation Act” (S. 1013), on May 17, 2011, following a U.S. Senate Committee on Finance hearing in March.