ASTHO
Commends House for Restoring $100 Million in Public Health Block Grant Funds
The
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials commended the U.S. House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies for
reinstating $100 million in FY06 federal funding for the Preventive Health and
Health Services Block Grant. ASTHO, along with more than 80 national health
organizations and members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives,
has urged the House and Senate Appropriations committees to fund the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention's Preventive Health and Health Services
Block Grant at the FY05 appropriated level.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050609.133319&time=14%2030%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
**Children,
Youth & Families
Interim
Report Shows Some Success of Abstinence Education Programs
The
Department of Health and Human Services announced first-year findings showing
that students participating in abstinence education programs have a more
positive view toward abstinence than students not participating. The
information was released in an interim report of an evaluation designed to
measure the impacts of a select set of abstinence education programs. The
report released is part of a longitudinal study that follows youth
participating in four abstinence education programs over five years.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2005pres/20050614.html
Government
Acting Like "Flat Earth Society," Promoting Abstinence-Only Programs
Advocates
for Youth reports that the long
awaited report on the impact of federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage
programs was released in concert with the Administration for Youth and
Families' Annual Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference. An objective
reading of the study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. for the
Department of Health and Human Services calls into question the Bush
Administration's support of abstinence-only as a national policy. The four
programs included in the Mathematica study demonstrated slight improvements in
participants' attitudes regarding abstinence, but were ineffective at improving
young people's communication with parents or their intention to remain
abstinent.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/news/press/061405.htm
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National
Council for Adoption Advocates 'Next Step in Foster Care Reform'
The
National Council For Adoption (NCFA) released a new report, "Performance
Measures for Courts: The Next Step in Foster Care Reform." The report is a
product of NCFA's Adoption Leader Engagement Project, which educates policy
makers, judicial leaders, the media, and the general public about the
importance of establishing performance measures for juvenile and family courts,
promoting judicial leadership, and allowing states greater flexibility in
federal foster care funding.
PDF: http://www.adoptioncouncil.org/documents/Adoption_Advocate_Vol_No_1_06_05.pdf
Tough
Child Support Laws Deter Single Men from Becoming Dads
Researchers
from the University of Washington studying
the factors behind out-of-wedlock births have found a significant variable that
often is overlooked: child support. States that are strict in enforcing child
support have up to 20 percent fewer unmarried births than states that are lax
about getting unmarried dads to pay, the researchers found.
Since children
of single parents run a higher risk of poverty and other social ills,
policymakers have sought to stem the tide of unmarried births, only to see the
rate rise from well under 10 percent of births in the 1960s to roughly a third
of all U.S. births today.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/uow-tcs061005.php
A Brief
Comparison of the Marriage-Related Provisions in Welfare Reauthorization Bills
A paper
from the Center for Law and Social Policy
summarizes the marriage provisions in the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) reauthorization bill passed by the House Human Resources
Subcommittee and the one passed by the Senate Finance Committee. It also
compares the bills in a side-by-side chart.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/sbs_marriage_060805.pdf
Paternity
Disestablishment in 2004-2005
A memo from
the Center for Law and Social Policy
analyzes the statutory and case law developments in paternity disestablishment
from late 2004 and early 2005, as well as recently enacted statutes. The first
appendix describes in detail the reported cases in 2004 and early 2005. The
cases are divided by topic and listed alphabetically by state. The second
appendix contains a chart listing the major state cases in the last eight years
in regard to paternity disestablishment for marital children. The third
appendix charts similar case law as regards non-marital children.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/paternity_update_061005.pdf
**Community
Development
First-of-Its-Kind
Program to Help Cities Reclaim Abandoned Properties, Reverse Blight
With
funding from the Surdna Foundation, the National Vacant Properties Campaign
will bring national experts to help local officials, nonprofits, and residents
adopt cutting-edge strategies for reclaiming their streets and neighborhoods.
In the first such systematic, multi-city effort, a consortium of national
organizations will provide expert assistance to seven cities working to reclaim
vacant and abandoned properties and restore vitality and livability to city
neighborhoods.
http://www.lisc.org/whatsnew/press/releases/2005.06.15.0.shtml
Making
Tax Incentives for Homeownership More Equitable and Efficient
According
to the Urban Institute, while many recent
evaluations of the effects of housing subsidies in the tax code focus on the
choice between renting and owning, this paper examines the distribution and
effectiveness of various changes to these subsidies. Specifically, it examines
several revenue-neutral reforms that would level out the current U-shaped curve
of housing benefits and deliver ownership subsidies more equitably and
efficiently to lower-to-middle-income households.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9298
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Get more
information on these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
************************************
**Economic
Security
Getting the
Market Right for Working Families
A report
from the Brookings Institution, The Price
Is Wrong, describes market distortions that disproportionately affect
low-wage households. Thousands of dollars are currently drained from the
budgets of Philadelphia's working families through higher
prices for everyday goods and services. These higher prices—higher than those
paid by better off families for the exact same goods and services—hold back all
aspiring middle class families, undermining the city's innovative efforts to
combat decades of decline.
http://www.brookings.org/metro/pubs/20050404_PriceIsWrong.htm
Improving
Tax Incentives for Low-Income Savers: The Saver's Credit
The Urban Institute finds that the federal tax
system provides little incentive for participation in tax-preferred saving
plans to households that most need to save more for retirement and whose
contributions would most likely represent an actual increase in savings. By
contrast, the tax code provides its strongest incentives to those who already
are generally better prepared for retirement and who are more likely to use
tax-preferred vehicles as a shelter than as an opportunity to increase overall
saving. The saver's credit, helps correct this "upside-down"
structure of tax incentives for retirement saving.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9291
Protecting
and Strengthening Social Security for Women
The
National Women’s Law Center reports that Social Security is the largest source of
income for most Americans in retirement; two-thirds of the beneficiaries
receive over half of their income from Social Security. And with lower
earnings, more time out of the labor force for care-giving, smaller pensions
and savings, but longer life spans, women are even more reliant on Social
Security than men. In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Social Security, the co-President
of the National Women’s Law Center made the case for strengthening Social Security for women.
http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/Campbell_NWLCTestimonyToWaysAndMeans_May2005.pdf
Social
Security--A Labor Force Issue
The Urban Institute reports that since Social
Security was first enacted, vast changes have occurred in the economy, life
expectancy, health care, the physical demands of jobs, the labor force
participation of women, and even the age at which one can be considered old. As
it stands now, the Social Security system--the cornerstone around which other
social insurance or compensation programs are built--is a middle age retirement
system that serves the truly old and vulnerable less and less each year. This
testimony focuses on ways in which benefits can be reoriented to the old, by
raising the retirement age, encouraging longer labor force participation, and
addressing the inequities and inefficiencies in the present system.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9295
Labor
Department Announces Availability of Grants to Train Workers with Limited
English Proficiency
The U.S.
Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration announced the
availability of approximately $5 million in demonstration funds to test
innovative and unique training strategies to serve individuals with Limited
English Proficiency (LEP) and Hispanic Americans. The grants will help ensure
individuals have the opportunity to learn English and gain access to important
employment and training programs.
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20051080.htm
**Education
Education
Department Hosts Conference to Highlight Importance of Education Reform in the
Hispanic Community
Education
in the Hispanic community took center stage at a two-day conference hosted by
The Department of Education and the White House Initiative on Educational
Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Some 200 Hispanic leaders from across the
country convened in our nation's capital to discuss the common goal of raising
Hispanic student achievement. "Pathways to Hispanic Family
Learning," focused on the importance of family and community involvement
in the education of students and finding effective ways to provide valuable
information about education to Hispanic Americans in English and Spanish.
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/06/06162005.html
Examining
Gaps in Mathematics Achievement
According
to a report from RAND, changes in family, school, and
schooling measures have impacted mathematics achievement among black and Latino
groups. While the black-white and Latino-white test score gap has narrowed,
significant disparities remain.
http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG255/index.html
Promoting
Student Success in Community College and Beyond
This report
describes the background, objectives, and design of MDRC’s evaluation of
Opening Doors. The Opening Doors Demonstration is designed to show how
community colleges can help more low-income students remain in school and
improve other outcomes, including degree attainment, labor market success, and
personal and social well-being.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/409/overview.html
**Health
New
Website Featuring Free Health Clinics Launched for National Men's Health Week
Men's
Health Network (MHN) has established a Web site that identifies free and low-
cost health care for men and their families. Recognizing that health care
access is a major issue for many Americans, the Web site includes links to
prescription drug assistance programs, including the Together Rx Access Card,
Pfizer Connection to Care and Friends, Partnership for Prescription Assistance,
Medicare links and information on clinical trials.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=48635
CDC's
National Leadership Role in Addressing Obesity
As part of
its Futures Initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
has established an obesity Trailblazer Team to bring an agency-wide
cross-cutting focus to combating the problem of overweight and obesity in the
United States. The trailblazer effort aims to ensure maximum coordination and
synergy among these activities and to define additional unique roles for CDC to
play. In particular, activities to address overweight and obesity will
capitalize on CDC’s deep experience in population-based prevention efforts with
schools and worksites, the communications and marketing fields, and the
nation’s public health system.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r050615.htm
16
Million U.S. Adults Are Underinsured
According
to a report from the Commonwealth Fund, in addition to the 45 million uninsured
U.S. adults, another 16 million were
underinsured in 2003. The study found that inadequate coverage—much like no
coverage at all—creates obstacles to care and other burdens.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=280812
Tax
Credits for Health Insurance
According
to the Urban Institute, over 40 million
Americans under age 65, the overwhelming majority of them in working families,
lack health insurance. The public ultimately shoulders the burden of paying for
the medical treatment of those lacking insurance, either through higher taxes
or higher health care costs. Expanding health coverage through the tax system
may not be the most efficient path.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9293
****Medicaid****
Children's
Defense Fund Urges Congress to Protect Children's Medicaid Health Coverage
The
Children's Defense Fund urged Congress to reject short-sighted and unjust
requests by the National Governors' Association to strip children of crucial
medical services. The NGA's recommendations could deny the poorest children
needed medical care by making it too expensive and eliminating benefits.
Decades ago, Congress wisely required that Medicaid-eligible children receive
preventive check ups, screenings, immunizations, and treatment for their health
problems. Congress also prohibited states from imposing financial barriers that
block children's access to care. Congress should preserve these commitments to
children.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/pressreleases/050615.aspx
Governor’s
Medicaid Proposal is a ‘Mixed Bag” of Good and Bad Recommendations
The
Executive Director of Families USA issued a statement about the NGA proposal.
“The new Medicaid proposal by the Governors is a mixed bag. It contains some
helpful recommendations that could make the program more cost-effective. Some
of the recommendations, however, would be very harmful to the 53 million
seniors, children, and people with disabilities who depend on Medicaid as their
health safety net.…”
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Media_Release_Medicaid_NGA_June_15_05
CBPP
Comments on the National Governors Association's Medicaid Recommendations
According
to the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, several of the National Governors’ Association
preliminary recommendations for Medicaid are promising. Others are troubling
and likely would be damaging to low-income people. On the positive side, the
proposals dealing with prescription drug costs, for example, hold the potential
to reduce state and federal Medicaid costs in ways that do not harm coverage
for low-income beneficiaries. These proposals could help states and federal
government become smarter purchasers of drugs without compromising access to,
or the quality of care for, Medicaid beneficiaries.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9295
**Homelessness
Homeless
Prefer Aggressive Medical Treatment
A new study
published in the June issue of Chest, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, reports that homeless persons are more
likely than physicians to want lifesaving procedures performed on them. As a
result, homeless persons who must rely on physicians as surrogate decision
makers for medical care may receive less aggressive treatment than they would
choose for themselves.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/acoc-hpa060705.php
**Hunger
and Nutrition
Report:
Childhood Hunger Doesn't Take a Summer Vacation
According
to the new report "Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation" from the Food
Research and Action Center (FRAC). About 2.9 million children from low-income
families received lunches at parks, schools, religious congregations, and other
community sites through either the Summer Food Service Program or the National
School Lunch Program on an average day in July 2004. Unfortunately, that meant
only 19 children were fed in the federal summer nutrition programs for every
100 who receive a free or reduced-price school lunch during the regular school
year. Participation nationally in summer nutrition has declined in five
consecutive years.
http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/06.16.05.html
