Volume 7, Number 8
In this Issue:
Prevent Child Abuse America Asks President-Elect Obama to Make Prevention a Priority
Gearing Up for the 111th Congress
Economic Recovery Plan Expected to Move First
Prevent Child Abuse America Asks President-Elect Obama to Make Prevention a Priority
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the President of the United States of America. Prevent Child Abuse America is urging him to make prevention a priority. Over the past month, we have reached out to his transition team with our specific recommendations, emphasizing:
- The need for a national strategy on prevention that coordinates the work of federal agencies, and assures that all federal funding, policies, and regulations related to child well-being are working towards complimentary goals; and
- The need to invest in building comprehensive statewide systems of home visitation that would include a range of high quality home visitation programs by enacting and funding the Education Begins At Home Act (EBAH).
Our complete set of recommendations is available on our website.
The transition team recently invited Lisa Schreiber, Senior Director of our Healthy Families America program, to participate in a meeting with other advocates to discuss the incoming Administration’s early childhood education platform. Lisa offered a unique perspective, highlighting the impact child abuse and neglect has on the Administration’s ability to meet their early childhood goals. Specifically, Prevent Child Abuse America believes that the early years of life are the foundation for a child’s future development. When we invest in child development, we are investing in community and economic development. When we don’t prevent intensive stress on children, like child abuse and neglect, we undermine their healthy development and their ability to succeed in school and in the workplace.
As a follow-up to this meeting, Prevent Child Abuse America submitted a 2-page brief on the role that prevention should play in short and long-term economic recovery efforts.
Gearing Up for the 111th Congress
The 111th Congress will convene on January 6, 2009, with expanded majorities for Democrats in the House and the Senate. Democrats currently hold 57 seats in the Senate, with the election result in Minnesota still pending and the process for filling the Illinois seat vacated by President-elect Obama yet to be determined. House Democrats picked up a net gain of 21 seats, giving Democrats a 79 seat advantage over House Republicans. These numbers will factor into decisions about the number of Democrats versus the number of Republicans included on each congressional committee (i.e. “committee ratios”). In the Senate, Democrats held a one-seat majority on committees in the 110th Congress. That majority is expected to increase in the 111th Congress, but by how much will depend on negotiations underway between the Senate Democratic and Republican leaders. Negotiations over committee ratios in the Senate may not conclude until January.
Once committee ratios are determined and assignments are finalized, Prevent Child Abuse America will be better able to target our grassroots advocacy efforts to those individuals with the most immediate influence over our priority issues. We will keep you posted on how this progresses in future Prevention Advocates.
In the meantime, we do know that the top congressional leadership posts will remain the same as they were in the 110th Congress. In the Senate, the Majority Leader will be Harry Reid (D-NV) and the Minority Leader will be Mitch McConnell (R-KY). House leaders will include Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-8), Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD-5), and Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH-8).
Economic Recovery Plan Expected to Move First
The first issue the 111th Congress is expected to tackle is an economic recovery package. The package is expected to include hundreds of billions of dollars in a mix of infrastructure funding, aid to states, and tax cuts. Congressional leaders are in the process of crafting the package, with a goal of having a bill prepared for the President’s signature shortly after Obama is sworn into office at the end of January. Prevent Child Abuse America is making the case to congressional leaders and President-elect Obama for prevention to be included in the economic recovery package.
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