National Head Start Association

NHSA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE AND CALL TO ACTION

Week of March 2, 2009

Dear Friends:

Please read this email and share it with others in your network. It contains a legislative update, an Administration update, an NHSA Update, and a Call to Action.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

2009 Omnibus Appropriation

Just recently (on February 25th), the House introduced and voted on HR. 1105, the omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2009. The bill passed the House 245-178. Roll call for votes can be found at: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll086.xml.

As background, please recall that the federal government is currently operating on a "Continuing Resolution" (or "CR") because the individual Department's appropriations bills were not passed prior to the start of this fiscal year. A CR from Congress allows money to continue flowing from the federal government (typically at the last fiscal year's funding level) until a designated date by which time, Congress is expected to pass a new appropriations bill (or at least a new CR with a new, later end date). An "omnibus" bill wraps many bills together; in this case, it wraps the 9 FY 2009 individual appropriations bills for different Departments into one bill. So, rather than Congress passing a stand alone Labor-HHS bill, as it sometimes does along with the many others, it will pass one bigger comprehensive bill.

In any event, HR 1105 includes $7,112,786,000 for "making payments under the Head Start Act." It reserves $2,000,000 to fund Section 657B of the Head Start Act (Centers of Excellence in Early Childhood). The Senate is expected to take up the bill early this week. If the bill does not pass in the Senate, the House and Senate will need to pass another CR to keep money flowing, because the current one is set to expire on March 6th.

ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS

Secretary of HHS

President Obama named Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to be his new pick for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") on March 2nd. HHS is the agency that contains the Administration of Children and Families' ("ACF's") Office of Head Start ("OHS"). Before becoming Governor, Sebelius was the President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. As Governor, Sebelius tried twice to expand access to health care in Kansas, but the Washington Post reports that her efforts "were largely thwarted" by the state's legislature. (Fletcher, 3/2/2009, www.washingtonpost.com.) The Washington Post reports that she was, however, "able to lower prescription costs for many people in Kansas and extend coverage to tens of thousands of children from low-income families." (Id.)

Governor Sebelius will have to undergo confirmation by the Senate, but a date has not yet been set. Once she has been confirmed, additional appointments within HHS will follow-including a new Director of the Office of Head Start. Stay tuned!

Health Reform Czar

Also on March 2nd, President Obama named Nancy Anne DeParle, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") under President Clinton, to be the Director of the White House Office for Health Reform, a new position responsible in part for the political side of health care reform efforts. (This position was originally going to be held by Tom Daschle simultaneously with the HHS appointment before he withdrew.) DeParle has also previously been the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

President Obama's Budget Blueprint for 2010 and Beyond

Last week, President Obama unveiled the contours of a 10-year budget plan, beginning with FY 2010 entitled "A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise." The document is available for download at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/. Although specific budget numbers will not be released for some time, this document outlines the President's priorities in each area of government. Importantly, this overview document specifically mentions Head Start. In the Department of Health and Human Services summary page (p. 67) it says that the President's budget "Supports families by providing additional funding for affordable, high-quality child care, expanding Head Start and Early Head Start, and creating the Nurse Home Visitation program to support first-time mothers." Then on page 70, it notes that the budget "Makes a Down Payment on the President's Zero to Five Plan. The Recovery Act [meaning the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, "ARRA"] makes a down payment on the President's comprehensive Zero to Five Plan, providing $1.1 billion to double the number of children served by Early Head Start over two years, an additional $1 billion to expand and improve Head Start, and an additional $2 billion in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant. The Budget sustains critical support for young children and their families by building on these investments." We look forward to learning what the mark for Head Start will be in the President's budget and will keep you informed as we do!

NHSA UPDATE

Slides from ARRA Webinar

NHSA and Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP offered a free webinar at the end of February about the Head Start provisions of the ARRA and what they mean for your program. If you missed it and want to download the slide presentation, please log-on to the Members Only Section of the NHSA website, www.nhsa.org.

Register Now for the National Conference in sunny Orlando: Don't Miss It!!!

NHSA is now accepting registration and payment for the 36th annual National Training Conference entitled Beyond the Boundaries: New Approaches and New Strategies. There will be sessions on what the ARRA (or Recovery) funds mean for your program, how to operate your program in the post-Reauthorization era of the Head Start Act, and much more! Please go to http://www.nhsa.org/training/annual_conference/36th/index.htm for more information and to register. Join us April 27th to May 2nd! Don't miss out!

Upcoming Webinars

NHSA has teamed up with Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP to provide you with additional training opportunities. Join attorney Ted Waters for NHSA's Legal Advisory Service Webinars happening every month. He'll cover issues of importance to you and your Head Start program. Check out http://www.nhsa.org/training/advisory/index.htm for topics, dates, and registration information. Make sure to register early!

CALL TO ACTION: IF YOU HAVEN'T SENT THANK YOUs FOR THE ARRA

If you haven't yet thanked Capitol Hill, the President and our community advocacy partners for their efforts to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("ARRA"), please be sure to do so. In your thank you, please tell them what Head Start means to you. Also, it is very important that you remind them that these funds will help to create needed jobs, preserve and strengthen many others, and ensure that more families will have safe, high quality programs for their children while they go back to work.

How?

You can send an email directly to your Senators and Representatives by going to www.senate.gov or www.house.gov and clicking on your Senator or Representative's website. On each website, there is a contact or feedback form which will allow you to email them directly.

To check on voting lists:

To check whether your Senators voted for ARRA, please see http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00064#name. To see whether your Representatives voted for ARRA, please see http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll070.xml.

Let's ensure that there are at least as many thank you's as there were requests for funding. Email or letters are better for thank you's than phone calls, so that the Hill staff can share the thank you notes and emails with the Senators and Representatives for whom they work.

How many do we need to send? Tons. We need to flood the Hill with thank yous. Remember, it looked a week before passage that Head Start might fall out of the bill entirely. Instead, we had some supporters who went to bat for our inclusion. Now we need to be sure they are well thanked. Without proper thank yous, they won't know how important this is to us.

Please also send thank you notes to the White House (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/) and to all of the community advocacy partners that you worked with to help make this win possible for the Head Start and early childhood community.

DOLLAR PER CHILD

All the work that NHSA did on the ARRA and is doing on other current legislative efforts is paid for by Dollar Per Child funds. That's why we need you to continue to support the Dollar Per Child Campaign. Without a robust source of funds, NHSA can't lead the way in our advocacy efforts that benefit all Head Start programs. It is through these dollars that we can advocate for you and with you on your behalf.

Don't wait. Please send your contributions, whatever amount you can afford, whether it is $1 per child, $5 per child, or $10 per child. You can even easily donate online. Click here to donate now to Dollar Per Child: https://www.nhsa.org/about/donate/frmdonate.cfm. Or you can send your donation by mail to NHSA Dollar Per Child Campaign, P.O. Box 890080, Charlotte, NC 28289-0080. Be sure to note which program, state, or region your donation is representing.

Dollar Per Child funds will ensure that NHSA can continue to lead the way in all of the future advocacy efforts coming up-from regulatory issues with the Office of Head Start, to additional fiscal year appropriations, to the next Head Start Act reauthorization which is not far off.

CHECK OUT NHSA ON MYSPACE

NHSA is on My Space. Check us out and join our group! http://www.myspace.com/nhsa


Please know that NHSA continues to work for you and with you on your behalf on matters of importance to the Head Start community.

This Legislative E-Update has been sent to Head Start Directors, the NHSA Board, Head Start State and Regional Association Presidents, Executive Directors, and Parents. Please share it with others in your network.