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This just in from the National Foster Care Coalition...
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House Committee Eliminates Social Services Funding
On Wednesday, April 18 the Ways and Means Committee voted to completely eliminate the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The action was a part of that committee’s reconciliation bill which is a result of the House budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 112) adopted earlier this spring. The Ways and Means Committee was required to find $53 billion over ten years but came up with approximately $60 billion with SSBG being the biggest piece. They also made cuts to the children’s tax credit and the Affordable Care Act (health insurance law). If the effort to eliminate SSBG is successful it would wipe out $1.7 billion annually in funding that states spend on a range of human services programs. While the Senate is unlikely to act on a reconciliation bill, the proposed elimination, if it does not result in a strong reaction, could come back later. Venues to eliminate SSBG include a negotiation after this year’s election to avoid January across-the-board cuts or it could be back next year in a deficit reduction package.
States have consistently used SSBG to supplement a range of child welfare and child protection services. In fact SSBG funding used for Child Protective Services (CPS) has consistently been around $300 million a year far exceeding the $27 million allocated through the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). States also supplement their child abuse prevention, adoption and foster care services. According to recent state surveys of child welfare spending, SSBG represents 12% of all federal funds spent annually. States can use SSBG for 29 different services to all vulnerable populations but child welfare is one of the largest categories. In FY 2009 states spent approximately $980 million of SSBG to supplement a range of child welfare services. Some of the money allocated comes from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant and in such cases SSBG allows a more flexible and direct support for child welfare. According to the latest SSBG annual report (2009): 41 states used SSBG dollars to fund their child protective service agencies, 30 states used funding for prevention and intervention services, 22 states used funds to assist in adoptions, and 36 states supplemented their foster care systems with the funding. There are also additional funds used to assist youth and to address some residential care services.
To read more about SSBG history and the irony of SSBG being used for deficit reduction see the article below (SSBG: Deficit Reduction for the Third Time)
The cuts from Ways and Means will be combined with cuts from Agriculture, Financial Services, Judiciary, Energy and Commerce, and Oversight and Government Reform. The Energy and Commerce and Oversight and Government Reform committees must still act. All cuts will be combined into a single bill.
SSBG Deficit Reduction For The Third Time
When the House Ways and Means Committee acted last week to eliminate SSBG as a means to a federal balanced budget it was a repeat of history. In the 1960s social services spending (later to become SSBG) was in fact an entitlement to states with funding to be drawn down for services that could be wrapped around AFDC recipients to facilitate their leaving public assistance for work. When the program experience rapid growth in the early 1970s the Nixon Administration and Congress agreed to place a cap on expenditures. None-the-less it remained an entitlement. In 1981, as part of the new Reagan Administration’s deficit reduction plans it was converted into a block grant. In fact one bill passed the Senate to combine the newly created Title IV-E adoption assistance and foster care and social services funding into one block grant. Title IV-E programs survived when the House would not agree to such drastic changes but social services spending was converted into Title XX the Social Services Block Grant. The budget was never balanced and deficits grew worse but in the next decade, SSBG would once again serve as a target for deficit reduction. During the 1996 welfare reform debate that would result in the creation of TANF, SSBG was temporarily reduced to $2.3 billion from its level of $2.8 billion. Under the 1996 TANF law SSBG was to return to $2.8 billion after five years. This time the federal budget did reach balance and in fact had a surplus in the late 1990s. Despite the growing surplus, SSBG was never restored. Instead of restoration the Congress again reduced SSBG, this time permanently to $1.7 billion as a way to offset the cost of the 1998 transportation/highway reauthorization in lieu of an increase in the gas tax. After the 1998 cuts which were phased in over several years, there were several bipartisan efforts to restore it to the full $2.8 billion. In the Senate, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) was one of the chief advocates for restoration of SSBG. He was joined by Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) who was sponsoring an initiative called the CARE Act. The CARE Act sought to strengthen charities with one piece of the bill including a restoration of SSBG. On the House side Congresswoman Nancy Johnson (R-CT) was joined by Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI) in pushing legislation that would restore funding. In an ironic twist to last week’s action, one of the main Republican cosponsors of the 2003 HR 1858 that would have restored SSBG to $2.8 was Congressman David Camp (R-MI), the current Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. So once again SSBG is the target of deficit reduction despite the reality that SSBG was being decreased at the very moment the federal budget was moving from surpluses to deficits.
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