Every February, the president submits a budget proposal to Congress. For advocates, lobbyists, and others, it’s more important than Groundhog Day in determining what kind of spring is on the way. Will they be scrambling to fight proposed funding cuts or program eliminations, or praising the president’s choice to fully fund the programs they care about?

Robin Nixon is the director of the National Foster Care Coalition, an organization administered by Connect for Kids that brings together national organizations and foster care alumni. NFCC is dedicated to raising public awareness to strengthen foster care and community supports to ensure children, youth and families reach their full potential

We spoke to Nixon about President Bush’s fiscal 2006 budget proposal.

CFK: What’s the big news in this budget proposal for people involved in foster care and child welfare issues?

Nixon: Can we start with the good news? Because there is some good news – the president has again recommended fully funding the Chafee Education and Training Vouchers program at $60 million.

It’s good to see his continued support for the program – he has consistently recommended full funding each year. It has not been funded at that level by Congress, but we’ve been happy to see increases in every fiscal year. It was funded at $46 million for the current fiscal year.

( The Chafee ETV program provides young people leaving foster care with vouchers of up to $5,000 a year for college or vocational school tuition and cots. Learn more at http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/2004legagenda06.htm and in the CFK article on Chafee ETV.)

CFK: Are there other budget proposals that your group is particularly pleased or concerned about?

Nixon: The president is recommending that the states have a flexible funding option for Title IV-E. We’ve been concerned about that for years.

(Title IV-E is a federal entitlement program which funds a percentage of each state’s costs for foster care services to children. Advocates are concerned that changes to the program will result in a decline in funding and deterioration of services. The Children’s Bureau has a basic explanation of how the program works now.)

The other big one to really pay attention to is Medicaid… States rely on Medicaid a lot to provide services to families, including families in the child welfare system – for health care, but also for substance abuse treatment programs.

If the proposed new rules take effect, more families will not get services. That will have a huge impact on efforts to keep families together. The majority of kids who come into the child welfare system come in because of neglect. A huge proportion of that is related to either mental health or substance abuse issues. So, to keep families together and functioning, there is a desperate need to provide both mental health and substance abuse services. That’s something states use Medicaid for.

(The FY06 budget proposal calls for changing Medicaid rules to result in a $45 billion cut over 10 years. The rule changes would make it harder for working poor families to qualify for Medicaid, thus reducing Medicaid rolls in the states. Families USA estimates the amount cut would be large enough to provide health care for 1.8 million children, or 345,000 seniors.)

We’re also concerned about the proposal to cut community block grants. This would have serious impacts on local human services programs for kids and youth.

(The president proposes cutting community development funds by $1.8 billion, or about 30 percent, and eliminating the Community Development Block Grant.)

CFK: Do you see a broader message for the child welfare organizations coming from the president’s budget proposal?

Nixon: This budget reflects the president’s purported goal of coordinating and streamlining systems and services, reducing duplications of effort. I think that in the interests of accomplishing some of that, it would behoove us as a field to sit down with representatives of the multiple systems in our communities, and try to coordinate and streamline our efforts, so they will be more efficient and convenient for families. We can be proactive on this.

More Information:

The Coalition on Human Needs provides a round-up of links to analyses by different groups.