More than 800 nonprofits have joined a sign-on letter to Congress in support of the Streamlining Federal Grants Act (S. 2286/H.R. 5934). Social Current has been active in advocating for federal grant reform, and in collaboration with the National Council of Nonprofits, has been educating the sector on the importance of this legislation that would enhance the efficiency and performance of federal grants and cooperative agreements.

Social Current’s Senior Director of Government Affairs Blair Abelle-Kiser commented on the importance this act has for the sector:

“I believe the Streamlining Federal Grants Act is a transformative step toward a more efficient and equitable grant administration system. By addressing critical issues and advocating for coordination, transparency, and equitable access, this legislation has the potential to empower nonprofits and uplift underserved communities across the nation.”

Grassroots advocacy by community-based organizations has been instrumental in building support in Washington, D.C., for the Streamlining Federal Grants Act. Since Social Current hosted its first-ever Capitol Hill Day on October 18, during which dozens of our network organizations met with members of Congress and staff, eleven members of Congress have cosponsored the bill.

These new cosponsors include Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Rudy Yakym (R-Ind.), David Trone (D-M.D.), Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.).

Please sign onto the letter endorsed by more than 800 other nonprofits and help keep up the momentum!

HHS and DOE Release New Resource for Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have collaboratively issued an updated policy statement highlighting the value of integrating children with disabilities into early childhood programs. This revised statement expands upon a 2015 version, reaffirming dedication and urgency to surmount obstacles hindering these children from fully engaging in inclusive early childhood programs. The revision aligns with President Biden’s executive order focusing on enhanced access to top-tier care and bolstering support for caregivers. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said, “Our nation’s youngest learners – including those with disabilities – deserve access to high quality early childhood programs that nurture their potential and provide a strong foundation for future success.”

With over 61 million U.S. adults grappling with disabilities and nearly one in six children experiencing developmental delays, the administration has advocated for a culture of inclusion spanning from birth to education and extending into communities and workplaces, according to HHS and DOE. The statement underscores the need for inclusive environments, presenting updated guidelines for implementing programs administered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Head Start, childcare, home visiting, preschool, and public schools. It also includes evidence-based models and resources to facilitate tailored programming for children with disabilities in early childhood programs.

Administration Launches 2024 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period

The Biden-Harris administration announced that more than 4.5 million people have opted for health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Insurance Marketplace in the ongoing 2024 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period (OEP), between Nov. 1 and 18. This data encompasses the 32 states using HealthCare.gov up to week three, and in the 17 states as well as the District of Columbia with State-based Marketplaces until week two. Among these selections, 920,000 individuals (20% of total) are newcomers to the Marketplaces for 2024, while 3.7 million people (80% of total) possess existing 2023 coverage.

In a statement, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra highlighted the robust launch of this year’s enrollment season, stressing four out of five individuals can secure a plan for $10 or less per month after subsidies on HealthCare.gov. According to the administration, the Inflation Reduction Act has played a role in reducing costs and enhancing benefits; it is anticipated 9 out of 10 customers will be eligible for savings. During the OEP, almost 96% of HealthCare.gov consumers have the option to choose from at least three health insurers. The highly competitive Marketplace for 2024 offers various plan choices, encouraging individuals to revisit and shop for plans that better align with their needs at a reduced cost.

The 2024 OEP spans from Nov. 1, 2023, to Jan. 15, 2024, and individuals enrolling by midnight on Dec. 15 can secure full-year coverage starting on Jan. 1, 2024. The administration also provides support through Navigator Awards to organizations aiding in consumer assistance.

Congress Punts Federal Budget Negotiations Until Next Year

President Joe Biden signed a temporary funding bill on Nov. 16, following the Senate’s bipartisan approval in a vote of 87-11. The legislation, referred to as a continuing resolution (CR), effectively averts the risk of a government shutdown until after the holiday season. The CR garnered substantial backing in the House, securing a vote of 336-95 on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) highlighted the significance of bipartisan collaboration in ensuring government operations without detrimental cuts or contentious provisions.

Crafted by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the CR allocates funds to specific departments such as Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs until Jan. 19, 2024. The Defense Department, along with Health and Human Services, Education, and other government components, will receive funding until Feb. 2. Johnson’s strategy was aimed at avoiding a last-minute comprehensive spending package ahead of Christmas. Notably, the CR is characterized as “clean,” devoid of spending cuts or policy disputes that could isolate Democrats, and it excludes a supplemental package addressing matters like aid for Israel and Ukraine, humanitarian assistance, or border security.

This interim measure grants additional time for House Republicans to pass remaining appropriations bills and for negotiators in both the House and Senate to finalize funding agreements. Despite challenges, Johnson maintains an optimistic outlook, underscoring the ongoing process of consensus-building within the Republican ranks.

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

February 1, 2022 @ 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm

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Register

This free 30-minute webinar provides an introduction to Social Current and COA Accreditation. It is perfect for anyone seeking accreditation for the first time, interested in what is required to become accredited, or mandated to become accredited by state or federal legislation.

Participants will gain an understanding of the key concepts that define COA Accreditation, the steps toward becoming accredited, and the benefits of accreditation. There will also be a Q&A portion for us to answer any questions you might have.

Presenter

Joe Perrow

Network Growth Manager
Social Current

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May 5 All day

PowerNET 2024: Amplifying Our Impact Together

Join us in Pittsburgh at the Network of Jewish Human Services PowerNET conference on May 5-8.

Are you attending this event? Stop by the Social Current booth to pick up some cool swag and visit with Marisa Collins, director of strategic partnerships and partner communications, to learn more about our wide-range of solutions including COA Accreditation, Impact Partnerships, consulting, and more!

About the Event

PowerNET is The Network’s annual signature event. Over 2.5 days, professional leadership, including board members, and staff from
member agencies at all levels, participate in educational workshops and networking opportunities.

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In the high-intensity, resource-scarce universe of human services, the service environment itself often gets overlooked, or else overshadowed by compliance concerns. Against the backdrop of serving families at risk, individuals in crisis, and struggling communities, all while trying to keep the doors open, space planning concerns like layout, furnishings, lighting, and décor can seem trivial. Facility design might sound like a luxury, but in reality it has a presence in almost every aspect of service delivery. The evidence is clear. The physical environment can have a profound impact on behavior, mood, perception, and accessibility. When designed intentionally and strategically, your facility can support the work and mission of the organization. Left unexamined, it can limit or even undercut your impact.

Whether you’re opening a new site, considering a relocation, planning a renovation, or just looking for ways to refresh your facility in a way that improves the effectiveness of your services, here are some important issues to consider:

Safe space

The most fundamental concern for every organization is safety. Every facility has to comply with building codes and regulations aimed at protecting occupants from hazardous conditions. Features like emergency exits are specifically designed to promote safety by influencing behavior in the event of a critical incident – such as evacuating during a fire.

Serving vulnerable populations, however, often means preparing for and responding to critical incidents stemming from distress, conflict, and harmful behavior. In recent years suicide prevention has become a focal point for facility planners and is emerging now as a powerful example of how the built environment can be leveraged to save lives. Organizations serving populations at risk for suicide are embracing the imperative to scrutinize all architectural features, fixtures, and materials in the service environment for their potential to become an instrument for harm – specifically as an anchor point or ligature. Shatterproof glass, round-edged doors and tables, breakaway curtain and closet rods, and tamperproof power outlets are just a few examples of features that have been designed to be suicide-resistant. The layout of the service environment can also play a role in reducing opportunities to self-harm; placing staff areas in close proximity to high-risk individuals allows for consistent yet non-intrusive observation.

A trauma-informed approach tells us that identifying and addressing triggers or trauma reminders is key to preventing and de-escalating crisis situations. Organizations must examine both the physical and psychological safety of their facilities and keep in mind that the built environment itself can be a trigger or stressor. An enclosed, restrictive space can often be triggering for individuals with trauma histories or individuals with certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia; this is often addressed by foregoing corridor layouts and installing glass doors that enable individuals to get a clear view from one service area into the next. Planners also often avoid using the color red to avoid associations with blood, fire, and emergency lights that can trigger a trauma response. Individuals coping with anxiety or PTSD can be overstimulated by patterns, brightly contrasting colors, or other visually complex designs; neutral or softer colors with more subtle transitions are therefore generally more appropriate for therapeutic environments.

While safety is imperative, there are plenty of other ways the built environment intersects with organizational goals and priorities. Now that we’ve looked at how the physical environment can reduce suicide, harmful behaviors, stress, and aggression, we can turn to how it can reinforce and encourage positive behavior and promote better client outcomes.

The client experience

A well-planned facility should complement your organization’s work by ensuring that individuals and families feel safe, supported, and in control while they are receiving services. To learn more about how organizations use the built environment to support their work, we spoke with Children’s Institute, Inc. (CII) in Los Angeles, a COA-accredited organization that provides a broad array of mental health, early care and education, child welfare, family support, and youth development services to children and families – who are also currently in the process of relocating one of their sites and constructing a new campus.

A client-centered approach informs many of the crucial decisions CII has made in identifying and designing their new facilities. “We thought about how it would affect the client’s experience, being on one floors or two,” says COO/CFO Eugene Straub. CII has been careful to ensure that their facilities are welcoming to both clients and staff. “The goal is building a sense of trust and security. The last thing you want to do is make anyone feel uneasy.” Improvements have also been made to existing sites where the space was not meeting families’ needs. “We had a nice lobby and waiting areas but there were no activities, and we looked for ways to change that and make the space more inviting and inspiring.” Now CII’s once-empty waiting areas include a lending library and creative space for children and families to use.

What are some ways that your organization could find inspiration and ideas when planning facilities?  Your service recipients, staff and community are a great resource for ideas and a great place to start. Organizations should always look to their service recipients and their communities for ways to enhance their service environment, and tailor their facilities to the unique needs of the service population and to their service model. For example, a residential facility for individuals with schizophrenia can provide some relief to residents coping with paranoia by orienting beds and desks to face the door. A youth development program for children with autism spectrum disorder, who often struggle with spatial navigation and wayfinding, should consider applying visual cues to transitional spaces. Every organization’s approach to designing an effective and supportive service environment will be unique and depend on their scope, service population, service model, and culture. But there are a few universal design features that facility designers and environmental psychologists agree contribute to a calming, welcoming, and therapeutic service environment:

Nature equals nurture

Studies have consistently shown that access to nature, whether physical or visual, has a calming effect. Treatment facilities often situate themselves in a natural setting for this reason, but any organization can look to existing assets to bring to their full potential, such as a small outdoor space that can be converted into a courtyard or garden, or installing windows to take advantage of a good view. Organizations that are truly limited can still make enhancements by incorporating plant life into the decor and displaying nature and landscape art, which have also been demonstrated to have a positive and calming effect on mood.

Let the sun shine 

Sunlight triggers the release of serotonin, which boosts mood and focus. Research also indicates that the ability to identify time of day through observed sunlight is conducive to re-establishing perception and natural thinking while minimizing disorientation. Natural light also makes small spaces appear larger and more open than they are. Organizations should ensure that they’re maximizing and not obstructing their natural light, such as by moving furniture away from the windows, using window coverings that filter rather than block out sunlight, and opening up any doors and windows that would allow natural light to pass through the facility. Transom lights (windows built into the space above a door) and skylights are also examples of architectural features that maximize sunlight while still preserving privacy.

Power to the people 

A client-centered and trauma-informed approach to services stresses the importance of giving service recipients opportunities to have a voice in their service plan and at each stage of service delivery. For survivors and individuals coping with past trauma, opportunities to take control and make their own choices are important exercises in self-empowerment and essential steps on the road to recovery. Current best practice regarding residential facilities stipulates that residents should already be encouraged to personalize and decorate their own space. However, when possible, personal choice should also be extended to the environment by giving service recipients the power to customize lighting, temperature, acoustics, or furniture arrangements. To balance flexibility with safety, facility planners often choose furniture that is too heavy to be thrown or used as a weapon, but that can still be moved around and reconfigured, which gives individuals (or groups, in communal settings) autonomy to situate themselves where they feel safest.

No place like home

Experts typically agree that a safe, therapeutic, non-institutional and homelike environment is the best setting for residential treatment. Some strategies that designers employ to make a facility more warm and inviting include using upholstered rather than hard furnishings to invoke a softer, cozier feel, and mixing and matching a cohesive array of furnishings to avoid a uniform, institutional look. Given that “home” is a cultural construct, cultural competency is vital to ensuring that your environment meets the definition of “homelike” for your service population. 

Of course, “home” is about more than just furniture — it’s also about people. When designing or evaluating a facility, organizations must consider not only the service recipient, but their support network. Because an engaged and committed support network is one of the most important contributing factors to positive client outcomes, service environments need to promote and facilitate their ongoing involvement. Organizations should be mindful that an imposing service environment can discourage or inhibit the service recipient’s support network, and evaluate whether their facility accommodates and encourages visiting family and friends as well as any collaborating service providers. Is it intimidating for visitors to access or navigate the facility? Are there welcoming spaces for residents to spend time with their visitors, or to have private conversations?

Supporting your staff

Getting your space to work for your service recipients also means ensuring that it works for your workers. As with service recipients, the environment influences workers’ behavior, mood, and functioning – which in turn impact performance and productivity, and your organization’s effectiveness. In human services, an ineffective environment undermines not only your bottom line but your mission.

The human services field also faces significant workforce challenges – namely recruitment, retention, and secondary trauma. Qualified workers are in short supply, in no small part due to poor funding and stigmatization of the service population. Staff shortages and the difficult nature of the work, which often manifests as secondary or vicarious trauma, lead to burnout and to high rates of turnover. Finally, worker turnover negatively affects client outcomes.

These workforce challenges have been at the center of the design and planning process for Children’s Institute, Inc.’s new offices. With the aim of promoting collaboration and “addressing the adverse effects of the work itself”, CII decided to eliminate cubicles in favor of a communal, team-driven open plan layout that will allow staff to support one another, celebrate their successes together, and foster staff resiliency. Straub observed that the cubicle layout often forces staff “to go from meeting with clients to sitting at their desk by themselves” and process their experiences in isolation. The intent of the new layout is to encourage workers to “have more of a shared experience and focus on wellness and self-care both individually and with each other”. The new offices also feature “decompression zones” – calming work-free spaces for staff to recover, including through meditation and yoga, as well as larger common areas, kitchens, and breakrooms. Evolving workplace norms mean that “the younger workforce wants an office space that fosters support and feels less corporate and more collaborative,” Straub explains, making these amenities not just “perks”, but rather, vital resources that will promote staff wellness and strengthen recruitment of valuable staff.

CII is also allocating space for “drop-in” staff – workers from other sites who are out in the field will be able to use nearby CII offices as a landing spot in between client visits. Straub envisions that this increased “cohabitation” will stimulate knowledge and resource-sharing and enhance linkages for families and continue to build the culture of the agency. Emphasizing the importance of “collaborating with the end user,” CII has also been careful to engage staff in the facility planning process, bringing all staff to tour the new space before signing the lease and soliciting feedback about the environment as part of annual employee surveys. Continuous assessment of a new or revamped workspace is not just good quality improvement practice, it also ensures that the organization identifies and addresses any unforeseen effect on employee functioning. For example, in an evaluation study of behavioral health facilities, researchers discovered that staff in a new facility that had been designed to promote client-staff engagement were experiencing greater burnout in response to the increase in client interactions.

Strategic plans to building plans

Creating a safe, effective, and supportive service environment requires the organization to approach the physical environment as part of its mission. It calls for not only commitment and investment, but also a shift in attitude — away from “being happy just to get the space”, as Straub says, and towards leveraging the space to influence how the organization’s operations are experienced and perceived. By tying together their facilities, mission, and strategic plan, CII’s ambitious expansion project received enthusiastic support from its board and funders. Straub sees the new campus as “an opportunity to create organic change” by leveraging the space to build partnerships with the community; plans are already underway to co-locate with other providers and host community taskforces and other grassroots organizing initiatives.

As much as we’d like the primary takeaway here to be “good facility design is not about aesthetics”, it bears noting that a well-designed facility achieves through its appearance two invaluable objectives: firstly, it destigmatizes the organization’s services and service recipients, and secondly, illustrates the depth of the organization’s commitment to the community.

Tell us in the comments: How has your organization used its facilities to support service recipients and staff? What would you change about your current service environment?

Further reading

Building Better Behavioral Health Care Facilities

Rethinking Behavioral Health Center Design

Designing for Post-Traumatic Understanding

6 Behavioral Health Design Trends

Can a Frank Gehry design help change the dynamic of Watts?

Key Elements of Safe Design

Social Current announced the lineup for their upcoming annual conference, taking place Sep. 13-14 at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, 401 West Pratt Street in Baltimore, Maryland. SPARK 2022 will be a two-day in-person learning experience that will showcase insight and expertise from across the social sector on achieving greater impact so all people can thrive. Registration is now open (early bird registration rates available through Aug. 15) and can be accessed here.

“Fueled by a commitment to advance equity and improve the well-being of all people, we hope this conference will spark and elevate important conversations around some of today’s most vexing challenges,” commented Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “We will be exploring topics that are critical for organizational excellence and social sector impact, including brain science; equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); organizational and service delivery innovations; and workforce resilience and leadership. We invite social sector leaders from across the nation to join us for inspiration and to access practical tools for implementing innovative practice, policy, and research.”

SPARK 2022 will open Tuesday, Sep. 13 with a keynote address from Michele Borba, an internationally renowned educator, author and parenting child expert whose inspiring TEDx talk on empathy resonated with audiences worldwide. Her keynote will focus on how to use the “Empathy Advantage” to build valuable social capital with organizations and with clients, colleagues, and donors.

The closing keynote on Wednesday, Sept. 14 will feature Heather R. Younger, the founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, a leading employee engagement and consulting firm. Her talk will focus on how to build a culture of belonging, drawing on her personal experiences as the only child of an interfaith and interracial marriage. A diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist, she is a regular contributor to Forbes and Fast Company and is the bestselling author of The Art of Caring Leadership.

Key sessions over the two-day conference will include:

• “Translating Neurobehavioral Research to Practice to Improve Trauma-Informed Care for Children,” featuring Patrick Tyler, Ph.D., LIMHP, LPC, senior director of the Child and Family Translational Research Center for Boys Town and Karina Blair, Ph.D., research scientist, with Boys Town National Research Hospital.
• “Leaning into the Equity Journey for a Better Sector and Community,” featuring Undraye Howard, vice president of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for Social Current; Marlena Torres, COO for Children’s Home Society of Washington; and Angela Bell, director of program operations for The Up Center.
• “Crisis to Connection: An Anti-Racist, Trauma-Informed Approach to Improving Life Outcomes for Black Boys,” featuring Daicia Price, clinical assistant professor of social work for the University of Michigan; Kelvin Brown, program manager of The Children’s Center; and Aubrey Gilliland, project coordinator for The Children’s Center.
• “The Path to Innovation in Child Welfare,” featuring Sarah Norris, Ed.D., chief program officer for Crossnore Communities for Children.
• “Integrating Trauma-Responsive Practices and Equity to Support Staff Wellness and Resilience,” featuring Kesha Carter, chief diversity officer for CCSI and Elizabeth Meeker, senior director of practice transformation for CCSI.
• “Transforming all Spaces into Safe Spaces: Meeting the Urgent Need to Protect our Transgender Youth,” featuring Jenny Sloan, LMSW, CTRT, CTRP-C, clinical supervisor for Starr Commonwealth and Michael Rosewood, LLMSW, CTRP-C, behavioral health clinician for Starr Commonwealth.
• “Saving the Canary in the Coal Mine: An Organizational Approach to Workforce Retention,” featuring Gwen Koenig, chief growth officer for SigBee.
• “How Politics is Shaping the Future of the Social Sector,” featuring Undraye Howard, vice president of equity, diversity and inclusion for Social Current and Kim Peterson, vice president of change management for Aviva Family and Children’s Services.
• “The Necessity of Psychological Safety: A Roadmap to Shift Power to Community,” featuring Romero Davis, senior program manager of Social Current and Michael Cull, Ph.D., MSN, associate professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Kentucky.

Pre-conference sessions will also take place Monday, Sept. 12 and post-conference sessions will take place Thursday, Sept. 15. For a full schedule of pre- and post-conference sessions check here.

Sponsorship and exhibitor packages for SPARK 2022 are available. Through Social Current’s network, sponsors have the opportunity to reach more than 12,000 human services professionals representing more than 1,800 organizations that serve nearly 70 million individuals. For more information on sponsorship opportunities check here.

October 15, 2023 @ 9:00 am – 4:30 pm

$400 (Each Training)

These in-person trainings are pre-conference sessions at our SPARK 2023 conference in Bethesda, Maryland. Please select a training below to register for each training.  

Intensive Accreditation Training (IAT): 9 a.m.-Noon ET  SOLD-OUT

The Intensive Accreditation Training (IAT) is designed to prepare organizations to get the most out of their COA Accreditation experience. Topics discussed in this training include:

• An in-depth overview of the COA Accreditation process, including key milestones
• An overview of accreditation standards and the relationship between standards, evidence, and the rating indicators
• How ratings are assigned by the volunteer review team and insight on the accreditation decision-making process
• Tips on how to get organized and manage the work
• How to prepare for the site visit

Price: $400

Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI): 1:30-4:30 p.m. ET SOLD-OUT

This performance and quality improvement (PQI) training is designed to help organizations pursuing COA Accreditation develop a comprehensive approach to a quality improvement process that will advance an efficient and effective service delivery system and enhance organizational capacity to deliver quality services. This training will demonstrate how quality improvement is a catalyst for successful achievement of strategic goals and program outcomes.

Who Should Participate

• Organization primary contacts
• Senior leaders at organizations seeking COA Accreditation
• Other staff involved in an organization’s accreditation process

Learn more about COA Accreditation, a service of Social Current, and how to get started online.

Hyatt Regency Bethesda

One Bethesda Metro Center, 7400 Wisconsin Ave.
Bethesda, Maryland 20814 + Google Map

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Additional 2023 COA Accreditation Trainings

Oct 20

9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Intensive Accreditation Training (IAT) and Performance Quality Improvement (PQI) at SPARK 2024

Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel

1550 Court Place

Denver 80202

United States

Dec 2

10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Intensive Accreditation Training (IAT)

Dec 2

1:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI)

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In a fiery State of the Union speech on Thursday night, President Joe Biden defended his record and laid out his vision for the future. While he tackled major issues in the news, such as immigration, foreign policy, and crime, he also dedicated substantial time to issues like health care, education, and housing.

President Biden highlighted progress in implementing Medicare drug price negotiations, fulfilling a longstanding Democratic ambition enshrined in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). With ongoing negotiations for 10 drugs, Biden emphasized potential cost reductions for seniors and positive impacts on the federal budget. He called for an ambitious expansion to 500 drug price negotiations over the next decade. He praised other provisions in the IRA like capping insulin prices at $35 as well as limiting Medicare out-of-pocket drug expenses to $2,000, and he urged Congress to extend these measures.

President Biden also outlined his administration’s education priorities, focusing on raising teacher pay, bolstering early childhood education, and expanding tutoring and career readiness programs. The agenda aims to address chronic absenteeism, promote universal pre-kindergarten, and alleviate student debt through initiatives such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. According to the administration, in the last three years, 800,000 people qualified for the PSLF program.

In the speech, President Biden revealed new housing policy initiatives, proposing tax credits to support first-time homebuyers and incentivize home sellers. The plan includes a $5,000 per year credit for middle-class first-time buyers for two years, effectively reducing mortgage rates by over 1.5 percentage points. Additionally, the president proposed a one-year credit of up to $10,000 for selling starter homes below the county median price to stimulate activity in the sluggish housing market.

Sources: KFF Health News, Washington Post, and Education Week.

Administration Proposes New Rule on Child Care Subsidies

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has introduced a new rule aimed at lowering child care costs and enhancing options for families receiving subsidies. This rule, which is in line with President Biden’s April 2023 executive order on increasing access to high-quality care and supporting caregivers, makes crucial updates to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the nation’s primary funding source for child care affordability and quality improvement. Key provisions of the rule include capping family child care payments at 7% of household income, expanding child care choices, ensuring timely payments to providers, and simplifying application processes for families. By implementing these changes, HHS estimates around 100,000 children will benefit from reduced child care expenses. In separate statements, Vice President Kamala Harris and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra emphasized the administration’s commitment to affordable child care, highlighting the importance of these measures in supporting working families and child care providers alike.

WIC Gets More Funding, Child Tax Credit Expansion Still in Limbo

On March 6, aiming to prevent a government shutdown before the Friday deadline, the House of Representatives passed a $460 billion spending package to fund half of federal agencies. Due to opposition from some House Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had to use an unusual process which required a two thirds majority to pass the bill. The package passed 339-85. The Senate also passed the bill and President Biden signed it into law on Saturday. The bill incorporated key Democratic priorities, including a $1 billion increase to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), additionally staving off attempts to limit the purchase of certain items within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

This agreement averts an immediate shutdown and ensures government operations continue. However, the new deadline is March 22 and challenges remain in reconciling differences over contentious issues within remaining spending bills. For example, Sen. Mike Crapo has expressed strong opposition to a $78 billion tax bill that would expand the child tax credit. Crapo criticized proposed changes to the Child Tax Credit, expressing concerns over potential implications for workforce participation and describing the bill as a shift from family tax relief to government subsidy. Amidst these debates, the path forward in the Senate remains uncertain, highlighting ongoing challenges in reaching bipartisan consensus on critical fiscal matters.

McConnell To Step Down as Senate Leader

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the longest-serving Senate leader, announced his plans to leave the position in November, marking the end of an era in American politics. McConnell, age 82, revealed his decision in the Senate chamber, reflecting on his journey from obscurity to leadership. His resignation marks a significant ideological shift within the Republican Party, transitioning from traditional conservatism in the style of Ronald Reagan to the populism of Donald Trump.

McConnell emphasized he plans to complete his Senate term, which extends until January 2027. His decision came amid mounting pressure from within his party, particularly from the faction aligned with Trump.

Notably, McConnell’s relationship with Trump soured after the 2020 election, culminating in McConnell’s blame of Trump for the Capitol riot. Despite criticism from within his party, McConnell remained steadfast in his convictions.

Throughout his tenure, McConnell wielded considerable influence, reshaping the federal judiciary and championing conservative policies. Despite his polarizing reputation, McConnell leaves a lasting legacy in the Senate, characterized by his strategic acumen and dedication to his party.

Looking ahead, McConnell acknowledged the need for new leadership in the Senate, signaling a generational shift. While his departure is the end of an era, McConnell remains dedicated to his role.

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