This week is “fiscal cut-off” in the State Legislature, where bills that have been passed out of policy committees will either be passed out of fiscal committees and on to a rules committee on their path to full House and Senate consideration, or will languish and die in the fiscal committees (House Appropriations and Senate Ways & Means).
Please pick your top priorities from our top priorities below and comment on the linked bills to let legislators know we’re keeping track of their progress through the fiscal committees. These three bills are being considered in fiscal committees and require lots of advocacy from United Way supporters.
Homeless Management Information System - Senate Bill 5898 eliminates barriers to participation by replacing the existing “opt in” informed consent process with an “opt out” system that continues to rigorously protect data confidentiality while increasing participation. This change will increase federal homeless grant dollars and provide better data for decision making about which services are needed where. Comment on the bill here.
Extended Foster Care – House Bill 1735 & Senate Bill 5740 ensure youth with significant medical conditions can stay in foster care until they are 21 years old so they have a safe place to stay while transitioning to adulthood. All other categories of foster kids have already become eligible to stay in foster care until age 21 except youth with significant medical conditions. It’s time to extend this protection to our most vulnerable foster youth. Comment on House Bill 1735 and Senate Bill 5740.
Homeless Youth Act – House Bill 1436 & Senate Bill 5404 ensure that homeless youth have the support they need to thrive. The Act maintains a fund to support housing, education, employment and other critical services for homeless youth and sets a goal that state systems will not discharge youth into homelessness. The Act also addresses regional disparities in service delivery for homeless youth, and creates the Office of Youth Homelessness in the Department of Commerce. Comment on House Bill 1436 and Senate Bill 5404.
It takes less than 2 minutes to comment on the bills. Enter your address then click the “Verify” button; then enter your name and contact info and click “Support”. Lastly, you can enter a comment - feel free to use your own language or cut-and-paste ours from above.
To learn more about these bills, go here and enter the bill number.
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