We're back and it sounds like you'll continue to hear from us for the majority of the summer since the Senate Majority Leader has decided to cancel most of the August recess to continue working through spending bills and nominations. As of right now, the Senate is only scheduled to be off the first week in August rather than the full month. Let's look at what else has been on the table this week...
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House Approves Rescission Bill
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Today, by a vote of 210-206, the House of Representatives passed the
Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act (H.R. 3
)
which would codify the President’s rescission package. As previously reported, the White House
submitted a proposal
to Capitol Hill requesting the rescission of approximately $15.4 billion in unspent funding from several federal agencies. Of note, the proposed bill includes over $7 billion in cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Opponents of the bill emphasized the cuts to CHIP and its potential impact on the program and its recipients while proponents of the bill cited the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office report
which states the rescission of CHIP funding would not reduce the number of insured children.
It remains uncertain as to when the Senate will vote on its version of the bill
(
S.2979
)
.
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2019 Fiscal Year Appropriations
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This week, both the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations made progress on similar spending bills to fund the government for the 2019 fiscal year. Today, in a 235-179 vote, the House approved the first of several appropriations “minibus” bills which group individual appropriations bills into larger pieces of legislation.
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Administration Seeks to Reorganize Federal Government, Renaming Department of Health and Human Services
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is preparing to release a new plan as part of President Trump’s comprehensive plan to reorganize the federal government as guided by his
executive order
signed on March 13, 2017. This new plan seeks to combine a series of human service programs and rename the Department of Health and Human Services.
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HHS Secretary Testifies Before Education and Workforce Committee
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On Wednesday, the House Committee on Education and Workforce held an oversight hearing entitled
“Examining the Policies and Priorities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
”
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar testified and answered questions from the committee on a wide range of topics including the HHS FY 2019 budget, the loss of rural hospitals, the HHS recommendation that the Community Services Block Grant should be be eliminated, opioids, and more. A press release with additional information can be found
here
.
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Medicaid and CHIP Scorecard
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On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the first ever Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Scorecard, a central component of the Administration’s commitment to modernize the Medicaid and CHIP program through greater transparency and accountability for the program’s administration and outcomes.
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APHSA's Collaborative Centers
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Check out
the latest
from the National Collaborative for Integration of Health and Human Services!
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2018 NAPIPM Annual Education Conference
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Registration for the 2018 National Association for Program Information and Performance Measurement (NAPIPM) Annual Education Conference is now open! Join us August 13-16 in Tampa, FL to learn and network with other dedicated professionals responsible for improving the performance measurement capabilities of health and human services. Topics include real-world innovations from leading experts at the federal, state, and local level, as well as the private sector; SNAP, Child Care, TANF, and Medicaid policy updates; and more! Additional information is available
here
.
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Upcoming Webinar: Analytics in Human Services
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The National Collaborative Analytics Committee (NCAC) at APHSA has created multiple tools over the last three years to help state and county human services agencies build their analytics capacity and data management capabilities. On
Wednesday, June 13 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. EST
staff from Dakota County (MN), Hawaii Department of Human Services, and APHSA will discuss their experiences in developing analytic capacity to improve service delivery, contain costs, and improve the overall IT capacity of agencies.
Learn more about NCAC and the tools that this webinar will highlight
here
.
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ISM Awards and Fellowships Open
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IT Solutions Management for Human Services (ISM), an affinity group of APHSA, is currently accepting nominations for the 2018 Recognition Awards for Excellence in Human Services Information Technology. Any organization may submit a nomination and there is no limit to the number of nominations; however, a separate entry for each nomination must be submitted no later than
Monday, June 25
.
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ISM is also accepting applications for fellowships to the 2018 ISM Conference being held September 16-19 in Seattle, WA. Both full and partial travel fellowships are available to state and local government employees. Applications must be submitted no later than
Friday, June 29.
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