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Empfaenger : /a/www: welfare-workfare-state Antwort in : /alt/activism/d Absender : CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org (CDFupdate CDFupdate) Betreff : CDF update September 18, 1998 Datum : Di 22.09.98, 03:52 (erhalten: 23.09.98) Groesse : 7364 Bytes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ## Nachricht am 23.09.98 archiviert ## Ursprung : /misc/activism/progressive
Children's Defense Fund Update September 18, 1998
In This Issue:
-- Youth Violence Legislation -- Minimum Wage -- Adoption and Safe Families Act -- New Report from CDF: "Healing the Whole Family"
-- Youth Violence Legislation --
Congress passes controversial and misguided juvenile crime package: URGENT ACTION NEEDED
In June, the Senate passed S. 2073, a simple, bi-partisan bill, funding programs for vulnerable youth under the Missing and Exploited Children and Runaway and Homeless Youth Acts. But when S. 2073 came to the House floor this week, the House leadership substituted controversial provisions from two juvenile crime bills, H.R. 3 and H.R. 1818, for S. 2073. Now, the House juvenile crime package is set to go to conference with the Senate's S. 2073 to produce a final compromise bill. What's especially troubling is that in the conference between the bills, it is very likely that there will be an attempt to add some provisions from the latest version of the Senate juvenile crime bill, S. 10, even though S. 10 hasn't passed the Senate. S.10 includes many threats to children and has been held up in the Senate for over a year due to continuing controversy. Ultimately, a final juvenile crime bill that contains misguided and even dangerous provisions for children and communities could be rushed through the conferen
If these three bills are combined without major changes, children could be at serious risk:
- More children could be put in adult jails -- even truants and runaways -- with inadequate protections from adult inmates. Children in adult jails are 8 times more likely to commit suicide and 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.
- States could be forced to move more children into adult courts and to open records for more children. Juvenile justice principles -- that treat each child as an individual, and strive for a balance of rehabilitation and accountability -- will be undermined.
- Punishment would receive significantly more funding than prevention. Proposed prevention funds are $50 or $100 million -- compared to $450 and $500 million for punishment.
- Nothing would be done to prevent the gun violence that kills 14 children each and every day.
**ACTION: Call your Senators TODAY at 202-224-3121! Urge them to reject these misguided and dangerous juvenile crime bills. Ask for their support to protect children from adult jails and significantly invest in prevention.
-- Minimum Wage --
MINIMUM WAGE VOTE EXPECTED TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Senator Kennedy (D-MA) has found an opportunity to bring up his proposal to raise the minimum wage this Tuesday, September 22. He will be offering it as an amendment to the Bankruptcy Reform bill (S. 1301). The minimum wage increase proposed is 50 cents a year for two years--1999 and 2000, raising it to $6.15 an hour.
**ACTION: Please call your Senators before Tuesday to urge them to vote for the increase. They need to hear from constituents, and the time is now!!
Remember:
If we do nothing now, by the year 2000 the real value of the minimum wage will be only $4.82 an hour -- almost as low as it was when the 1996 increase was enacted.
A modest estimate of a single parent family's monthly costs of raising two children comes to $1,606--that assumes paying for child care for only one of the children, and ignores such items as clothing costs for the parent. Compare those expenses to the earnings of a California family of three with full-time minimum wage earnings, add in what they would get through the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps and welfare benefits, and subtract what they pay in taxes. The California family would have $1,449 in total income--$157 less each month than this modest estimate of their costs. (We picked California because its benefits are higher than average; it would be less in most other states.)
-- Adoption and Safe Families Act --
HHS Issues Proposed Regulations for the Adoption and Safe Families Act and Related Child Welfare Laws
The Administration for Children, Youth and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services published on Friday, September 18, in the "Federal Register" a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for regulations for portions of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (PL 105-89), the Multiethnic Placement Act (PL 104-88), and the Compliance Monitoring Requirements in the Social Security Act Amendments of 1994 (PL 103-432). The public has 90 days to respond to ACF in writing on the proposed regulations. The NPRM will be posted on the Administration for Children and Families Regs Page at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/hypernews on September 18, and copies will be mailed by ACF to individuals on its mailing list. Persons who do not have access to the ACF Web site or to the "Federal Register" can call Kathy McHugh at (202) 401-5789 to obtain a copy of the relevant sections of the "Federal Register." The Childrens' Defense Fund will be preparing comments on the proposed regulations. We would also be interested in re
-- New Report from CDF: "Healing the Whole Family" --
The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) this week released: "Healing the Whole Family: A Look at Family Care Programs", a report on innovative residential programs for families struggling with substance abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, and teen parenting. The report features fifty family care programs around the country that offer families supervised living arrangements and intensive services to support the parent, the child, and the parent and child as a family unit in order to promote child safety and family stability.
Supported by a grant from the Hite Foundation, CDF examined how family care works in different settings, what makes the programs successful, what we know about their success, and how they are funded. The report looks at how family care differs from traditional social services and how we can incorporate elements of the family care approach into child welfare services.
"Healing the Whole Family" is designed as a resource for child and family advocates, public and private child-serving agencies, and legislators and other policy makers who are committed to finding better ways to protect children by promoting safe, strong, and healthy families. Given recent changes in child protection and welfare laws, it is more urgent than ever that families get services that incorporate the core elements of family care. To order copies at $7.95 each, please contact CDF Fulfillment at (202) 662-3652.
-- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES!
Our typical e-mail is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an e-mail to: Majordomo@automailer.com and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate <your e-mail address> PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS.
Ana Hicks Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org www.childrensdefense.org
Index of Welfare-Workfare-State Archives
Last Modified: October 1998