CONYERS Stands For Dignity & Respect For All

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

"North Carolina's House Bill 2 prevents local governments from passing and enforcing additional anti-discrimination laws. This also undermines existing ordinances that protect LGBT Americans, disabled Americans and veterans. I join my colleagues and fellow veterans in urging the Governor of North Carolina to ‪#‎RepealHB2‬ " said Conyers.

Congressional Letter To North Carolina Governor To Protect Veterans By Repealing HB2

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Foster Youth Medicaid Bill Has Seriously Flawed Reasoning

What we've got here is a failure to communicate about issues with Medicaid and child welfare.

Former foster youth trying to survive after being tortured in care and dumped on the streets when they age out.

To begin, allow me to make a substantial correction to the reasoning behind this legislation to provide foster youth Medicaid.

The legislative analysis is still on the drawing table so I will save them some time and present my own version.

Foster youth do have legal guardians.

Not every state is structured the same, but for purposes of brevity in proving my point, I introduce Michigan as my example.

The legal guardian for more than 7,000 foster youth in Michigan is....  MCL 400.203 Sec.(3)(1)!

The Superintendent of the Michigan Children's Institute, Bruce Hoffman.  (It used to be Bill Johnson but I guess he was needed full time to cover up the fraud in its child welfare contracting.  Bruce Hoffman was always number 2.)

Then there is that nasty legal technicality of termination of the Michigan Superintendent's parental rights to these state wards, which of course is defined as "legal and physical guardianship and custody", and has never been examined, except by me.

Michigan Quo Warranto Petition by Beverly Tran

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not bring up the fact that foster care is not what the pretty shiny brochures make it out to be.  So, any child who survives foster care, whether it be through aging out, reunification or just not dying in care, should be designated, automatically, unless there is a petition to opt out, to be formally designated as disabled, under Social Security Administration, Social Supplemental Disability Income, better known as SSI.

Medicaid becomes an automatic provision of SSI, meaning the foster youths are guaranteed health care.

As it stands, former foster youth do not have access to proper health care, particularly services and resources for the hell they have survived under state care.

Much of the horrors of foster care stay with these survivors for their entire lifetime.  Why limit to just 26 years?

To further support my position on transitioning foster youth in need of more assistance than what is currently provided, Michigan is still under federal monitoring of its child welfare system because it still sucks.

Lastly, keeping foster youth under the auspices of a state for the purposes of accessing health care is just plain stupid because I can already see the flood gates open to new and improved Medicaid fraud schemes in child welfare.

If we, as a nation, cannot stand up and admit that the entire U.S. child welfare system can only be measured by its success in creating the highest international levels of child poverty in the industrialized world, then at least we can throw these former foster youth a few scraps to survive on the streets once they are kicked out by the same "caring" foster parents who no longer receive maintenance payments for their care.

Keep it simple.  Keep it real.  Keep it logical.  Just get SSA Commissioner Michael Asture to get a HALLEX policy transmittal.

Feel free to copy and paste my research, below.

Claimant is disabled under section 1614(a)(3)(C) of the Social Security Act. Pursuant to § 416.924(a), the sequential evaluation steps of determining a child disability provides that the Administration “will consider all relevant evidence in a child's case record, that we will consider all impairments for which we have evidence and their combined effects, and that we will evaluate any limitations in a child's functioning that result from a child's symptoms, including pain.”  (H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 725, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 328 (1996), reprinted in 1996 U.S. Code, Cong. and Ad. News 2649, 2716. The House report contains similar language. See H.R. Rep. No. 651, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 1385 (1996), reprinted in 1996 U.S. Code, Cong. and Ad. News 2183, 2444.)

Continuing with reference to Pub.L. 104­193 Section 211(a) of Public Law 104­193 amended section 1614(a)(3), claimants, foster youth, are disabled as the condition has lasted and is expected to last for a continuous period of more than 12 months, as supported with the duration of this administrative claim, 12 months being the average length of stay in foster care and 12 months being the tolling period to initiate termination of parental rights.

Claimants, foster youth, are typically not working, and have impairments which is of the required duration and which significantly limits the ability to work, considering some foster youth who were able to be reunified with their original guardians are under the age of 16 years. [See 20 CFR §§416.920(a) through (c )(1989)]

This is a better policy companion to SB 1852.

This is the time to end the "groupthink" and start to listen to an original source.

Bass, McDermott Introduce Healthcare Maintenance Legislation for Former Foster Youth

As they continue to address the needs of the hundreds of thousands of young people who are currently a part of the foster care system and the tens of thousands who leave the system each year, Reps. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.)—Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth—announced they introduced H.R. 3641, the “Health Insurance for Former Foster Youth Act of 2015,” legislation that will close a loophole and guarantee that foster youth will still receive health insurance through Medicaid until they turn 26 years old regardless of their state of residence.

One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act was to ensure that young people could stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26. Because foster youth do not have legal guardians, the law addressed foster youth by guaranteeing that as long they were in the foster care system by the time they were 18 years old, they would be able to receive Medicaid until they turned 26.

However, because of ambiguity in one section of the law, foster youth who leave the foster care system may find themselves without health insurance through Medicaid if they decide to move out the state—even if they are attending college, working, or need to leave for personal reasons.

Although 13 states have addressed this issue, foster youth in the remaining 37 states and the District of Columbia face the choice of leaving the state for new opportunities or losing their health insurance. One of these young people is Lezlie Martinez, a 19-year-old former foster youth from San Diego, California.

Ms. Martinez was planning on moving to Colorado because of the lower cost of living there, and her boyfriend will soon be moving to the state—meaning that she will have a support system for herself as well as for her two-year-old son.

However, Colorado is a state that is not offering free Medicaid to former foster youth, and now Ms. Martinez is faced with having to decide between having healthcare while living in one room with her son or moving to Colorado so she can provide a better life for her child and herself but face losing her health insurance.

“This changes everything,” said Ms. Martinez as she is forced to confront decisions about not just her future, but for her child as well.

“The Affordable Care Act was designed to help young people like Lezlie, not force them to choose between school in another state or healthcare where they currently live,” said Bass. “I commend the states that have addressed this problem, but now it is time for Congress to provide a permanent fix in federal law.”

The “Health Insurance for Former Foster Youth Act” is particularly important to ensure that foster youth maintain uninterrupted access to health insurance. According to the Congressional Research Service, between 35 and 60 percent of youth who enter foster care have at least one chronic or acute health condition such as asthma, cognitive abnormalities, visual and auditory problems, dental decay, and malnutrition that require long-term treatment, and 50 to 75 percent of foster youth exhibit behavioral or social competency issues that may require mental health treatment. In 2013, nearly 50,000 youth exited the foster care system between the ages of 16-20.

“I am proud to join with Congresswoman Bass in introducing this important legislation. Young adults in the foster care system deserve our special care and concern, as they came into the system through no fault of their own. These young adults are among the least served populations and its vitally important that Congress does all it can to provide them affordable and reliable access to medical care. I believe this legislation will do just that by making small clarifying fixes to the Affordable Care Act,” said Congressman McDermott.

Congressmembers G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Tony Cardenas (D- CA), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Judy Chu (D-CA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Danny K. Davis (D- IL), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), John Garamendi (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Robin Kelly (D-IL), Ron Kind (D-WI), Jim Langevin (D- RI), John Lewis (D-GA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D- NJ), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Charlie Rangel (D- NY), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) joined the legislation as original co-sponsors.

Over 140 prominent advocacy organizations support the legislation, including First Focus Campaign for Children, The Alliance for Children’s Rights, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Psychological Association, Children’s Defense Fund, Child Welfare League of America, and Foster Family-based Treatment Association.

H.R. 3641 is companion legislation to S.1852, introduced by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).

114th CONGRESS 1st Session

H.R. 3641

To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to ensure health insurance coverage continuity for former foster youth.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 29, 2015

Ms. Bass (for herself, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Langevin, Mr. Doggett, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Cárdenas, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Rangel, Ms. Norton, Mr. Payne, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Kaptur, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Ms. Slaughter, Ms. Wilson of Florida, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Kind, Mr.Lewis, Mr. Butterfield, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Van Hollen, and Mr. Ellison) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

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A BILL

To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to ensure health insurance coverage continuity for former foster youth.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Health Insurance for Former Foster Youth Act”.

SEC. 2. COVERAGE CONTINUITY FOR FORMER FOSTER CARE CHILDREN UP TO AGE 26.

(a) In General.—Section 1902(a)(10)(A)(i)(IX) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(a)(10)(A)(i)(IX)) is amended—

(1) in item (bb), by striking “are not described in or enrolled under” and inserting “are not described in and are not enrolled under”;

(2) in item (cc), by striking “responsibility of the State” and inserting “responsibility of a State”; and

(3) in item (dd), by striking “the State plan under this title or under a waiver of the” and inserting “a State plan under this title or under a waiver of such a”.

(b) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act.

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Tell Congress Your Foster Care Horror Stories

The Congressional Caucus on Foster Care seems to need a bit of direction.  Either U.S. Representatives Bachmann, Bass, Gardner and McDermott have no idea of the horrors of foster care or they are trying to cover it up.

I encourage each and everyone of you to share your foster care horror stories with this Congressional Caucus.  Let's put them on front street and post a comment in this major publication on Capitol Hill.

If you are a former foster child, foster parent, relative, original guardian, tell them the dirty secrets of the States child welfare system.

Below, is my comment.  Let's see how far these people will go to avoid me.

Every foster child's story needs a happy ending

Intriguingly, the case used as an example for the need to improve the outcomes of foster care began with the reason why the system has failed.

"...during class, Janessa was called into the office where she was informed that she and her two sisters were being placed into foster care."

Janessa had no idea anything was wrong. Why is it our leadership refuses to address the reasons why children are entering foster care?

Child welfare has been notoriously ensconced in the shadows of child abuse prevention public awareness campaigns since its conception to never be recognized for what it truly is: an unregulated industry.Of course, many will automatically stand up to defend such assigned moniker, but that is exactly what child welfare is, industry. 

An industry is generally defined by stock analysis, is production orientated. The actual stock is not the child, but the legal grant of guardianship of the child, because whoever has been granted legal guardianship and/or custody becomes the benefactors of the interests of the child. An easier understanding can be seen in the child tax deduction credit.

If the child is in foster care or a full ward of the state through termination of parental rights, there is no usage of the child's Social Security number by the "previous guardians." In instances of adoption, the child is assigned a new Social Security number.

As society invests in the "best interests of the child" to garner a profitable return of a future tax-paying and productive citizen, the basic laws of perpetuity apply.

PV \ = \ [ A \ r ],Where PV equals the Present Value of the Perptuity (a child's Social Security Number value, or rather social economic status); A equals the Amount of the periodic payment (fee-for-service as in Medicaid Targeted Case Management, SSA Title IV-E); and r equals the yield, discount rate or interest rate (the cost of services until maturity, or aging out the system).

Rewriting the equation using quantitative variables of foster care, PV is the Social Security Number value (SSN); A is Medicaid, Targeted Case Management (TCM) and r is the number of months for the child to age out the foster care system (AO).  So, SSN \ = \ [ TCM \ AO ] The value of a child's Social Security number is equal to the cost of Child Welfare Services provided over the time until the child ages out the system.

Qualified eligibility for Child Welfare Services is determined by the poverty means tests pursuant to Social Security Title IV-A. Simply put, foster care and adoption services were specifically designed for poor children.  Children are Legally Kidnapped.  Poverty has been codified as the crime of neglect throughout the States as the failure to provide for the necessary needs of the child. Where the only means for a child who is poor to access medical or any other form of specialized services is through entry into foster care, the child is, therefore, abused upon the eligibility determination of Medicaid.  Child abuse is not limited to the inability to afford medical resources.

Child abuse is Medicaid fraud.

Child abuse manifest its truest form through fiscal analysis of the industry of child welfare.
The major sector of the child welfare industry is protection of its fiscal and administrative operations. Since there is no accountability and transparency, meaning there is absolutely no regulation (i.e. contractual debarment, sanctions, revocation, prosecution), child abuse, or rather Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse thrives.

Medicaid fraud abuses poor children, on multiple levels. Once a child is classified as special needs, there is justification for scripting of antipsychotic medication. Children who are under the auspices of a state are eligible to become human research subjects for antipsychotic medication, also. By prescribing a child with antipsychotic medication, the cost of care has increased, substantially. This type of activity is validated in what is called investing in the "best interest of the child."

Youth who age out of foster care typically have been drugged to silence their cries of a life rape, emotional, physical and psychological torture in the system.  These individuals are discarded on the streets as the States have maximized its revenue with the turning a blind eye to the billions of dollars in child welfare fraud by its Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

Would you allow your child to go through foster care?

Stop Medicaid fraud and save a child. Reinvest the recovery of false claims in human capital and social infrastructure.

Beverly Tran
An Original Source

Congressional Foster Care Caucus

Here is a press release on U.S.Representative Cory Gardner joining the Congressional Caucus on Foster Care with my typical commentary:

WASHINGTON D.C. – Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) released the following statement after joining the newly created Congressional Caucus on Foster Care:

“Everyone deserves a chance to reach their full potential and become productive members of their communities. Our nation’s most vulnerable youth need strong advocates in Congress that can raise awareness of the challenges facing all foster youth and develop policies for improving child welfare. I believe that this caucus can help address some of those challenges.”

BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING FOSTER YOUTH:  Being Legally Kidnapped.


BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN DEVELOPING POLICIES: Admitting there is Medicaid fraud, false claims, generation of fraudulent documents, drugging, murder, suicide, rape, and torture in the nation's child welfare system.

ABOUT THE CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS ON FOSTER CARE

With more than 424,000 children and older youth in the nation’s foster care system, the number of children who exit the foster care system without finding a permanent family has increased over the years by nearly 29,500. The experiences of youth transitioning out of the foster care system place them at a higher risk for unemployment, poor educational outcomes, health issues, early parenthood, long-term dependency on public assistance, increased rates of incarceration, and homelessness.

Is this an admission of culpability?  Is this Congressional Caucus admitting that the national philosophy hails from the "peculiar institution"?

Co-chaired by Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA), Congressman Tom Marino (R-PA), Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the newly created bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Foster Care will work to protect and promote the welfare of all children in foster care and those who have “aged out” of the system. The Caucus will provide a forum for Members to discuss the challenges facing all foster youth and develop policy recommendations for improving child welfare outcomes in five focus areas: Safety; Permanency; Well Being; Educational Opportunities; and Youth, Family, and Community Engagement.

Add another area of focus:  Oversight.  Once again, these leaders have failed to admit the system is riddled with the unbridled mitigation of regulation which breeds defalcation and malfeasance.   


This committee must address Medicaid fraud, antitrust violations in contracts and the reason why children are entering the system in the first place, which is a good place to start to reduce the number of children in foster care.


What I find quite interesting is the fact these individuals hail from states with the worst track record in foster care.  I wonder where are the Maine and Florida Representatives?  I know where the Michigan Representative is.


Congressman Gardner is a freshman member in the U.S. House of Representatives for Colorado's 4th Congressional District. He serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and is a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, the Subcommittee on Environment and Economy and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

213 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4676

All in all, I do commend these individuals for taking the first step in admitting the foster care system is not working.


I will be engaging and reporting on the process.

McDermott Bill: “Bipartisan Child Welfare Bill Passes House”

It seems they are finally beginning to listen to me.

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.

Statement of Beverly Tran to the U.S. House of Representative Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Inc...

Dump and Lump Child Welfare Funding

  

Restructuring of Child Welfare Funding

PEOPLE WHO VIEWED THIS PAGE ALSO VIEWED

• Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children
• Child Welfare
• ICPC Point of Contact List
• Children and Family Services Reviews
• Fostering Connections to Success Act

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Issue: Restructuring of Child Welfare Funding

Impact:

Currently, the federal funding streams received by the state child welfare agencies are categorical in nature and emphasize out of home placement...to maximize its revenue.

Position:

No formal position because elections are around the corner and the child welfare lobbying organizations are rallying up their clients to make political campaign donations.  A position would jeopardize a political career.

Summary:

The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care reviewed the current funding structure and recommended the following in their May 2004 report:

• Preserve federal foster care maintenance and adoption assistance as an entitlement and expand it to all children, regardless of their birth families' income and including Indian children and children in the U.S. territories; This will never work because wealthier families can afford attorneys who would bring civil legal proceedings against child placing agencies, eventually taking a chunk out of the profit margins for these non-profits.

• Provide federal guardianship assistance to all children who leave foster care to live with a permanent legal guardian when a court has explicitly determined that neither reunification nor adoption are feasible permanence options; Guardianship, in these situations, is with the State. Instead of creating another revenue-maximization scheme, qualify all children who have been placed in foster care for Social Supplemental Income  (SSI), with special provisions of placing the money in a trust fund for the child.  Upon the age of 18 or emancipation, the child is granted the trust and continues to receive payments under current eligibility rules.

• Help states build a range of services from prevention, to treatment, to post-permanence by (1) creating a flexible, indexed grant from what is included in Title IV-B and the administration and training components of Title IV-E; and (2) allowing states to "reinvest" federal and state foster care dollars into other child welfare services if they safely reduce their use of foster care; and  

Dump and Lump: 

(1)  Transfer all Title IV-B and Title IV-E programming to Targeted Case Management of Medicaid;

(2)  Get rid of the Medicaid Moritoria;

(3)  Mandate States Medicaid Fraud Control Units to aggressively go after Medicaid Fraud in child welfare with increased recovery percentages and financial disincentives;

(4)  Expand access to the courts through increased indigent funding for legal representation, funded with Medicaid fraud recoveries; 

(5)  Create a public awareness campaign to report child welfare fraud to a newly established national child welfare complaint registry; and, 

(6)  Establish financial disincentives through reductions in the FFP for States to contractually debar, prosecute, recover and report to the HHS OIG exclusionary database.

• Encourage innovation by expanding and simplifying the federal waiver process and providing incentives to states that (1) make and maintain improvements in their child welfare workforce and (2) increase all forms of safe permanence. I promote expanding and simplifying the federal waiver process to include projects to stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare.

These Pew Commission recommendations have met with some resistance, but there continues to be an on-going dialogue in the child welfare community.  These Pew Commission recommendations were made by a bunch of folks who held financial interests in the adoption of these policies.  Michigan Supreme Court Justice, Maura Corrigan was the brain child to the conflict of interests of judicial advocacy in child welfare.  Not only would she encourage judges across the country to sit on advisory boards of these child placing agencies, but she would also promote adoption and extended lengths of stay in foster care by ruling for the case in favor of the child placing agency whose board you sit.  

Justice Corrigan was so good with benefiting from judicial advocacy, she even had her campaign to have her colleagues vote as Chief Justice funded and promoted through child welfare.

Status:  No one knows what the hell to do and that is why everyone keeps coming to my sites.

Child welfare advocates have been working to develop a proposal to reform federal financing of child welfare. This collaboration, Partnership to Protect Children and Strengthen Families, proposes to allow states to direct the unused portion of their annual allotment of Title IV-E foster care and adoption subsidy dollars to support a range of child abuse and neglect prevention services, ensure federal support to all children in foster care by eliminating the current income eligibility criteria, extend federal support to Native American children, and enhance accountability by requiring annual state reports on expenditures.

Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced the Invest in KIDS Act (HR 5466) on 2/8/08. The legislation would give states the option to include a prevention component in their foster care and adoption assistance state plan and eliminate the federal income and asset eligibility requirement.