The budget bill contains child welfare provisions that would discourage states from placing abused and neglected children with grandparents and other relatives, impede state efforts to reunify children with their parents, and make it more difficult to provide critical services to children and families.
Eliminate federally funded foster care assistance for thousands of children who live in low-income homes with their grandparents or other relatives.
Place time limitations on federal matching funds for costs to serve children in safe but unlicensed relative placements, and other limitations on child placement and administrative funds.
The CBO estimate does not identify the federal savings related specifically to foster children.
However, the provision is significant and is expected to reduce total federal funding of TCM by $760 million over five years and $2.1 billion over ten years---more than the total reduction in other child welfare programs.
Additionally, the proposal would eliminate other states' ability to offer support to relative caregivers under the analysis of Rosales.
A total of 45,500 children who should be eligible for support under the Rosales interpretation (if universally adopted), stand to lose potential benefits under this provision, using the 8.7 percent figure.
Several states were challenging HHS's continued rejection of Rosales in non-Ninth Circuit states.
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