Statement of Olivia Golden
Administration for Children and Families
Department of Health and Human Services
before the
Subcommittee on the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
 February 23, 1999
 

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am pleased to present the President’s budget request for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) for FY 2000. I am accompanied by Dennis Williams, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget for the Department.

President Clinton has presented to Congress a budget that is balanced for the second straight year. The budget for the Administration for Children and Families invests in human services that will benefit all Americans, focusing on programs to promote healthy development of our nation’s children and economic security and independence for families and communities.

The FY 2000 budget for the Administration for Children and Families is $42 billion, of which $23 billion is being requested in new budget authority. The remaining $19 billion is available through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Entitlement programs represent approximately $33 billion of our $42 billion budget.

Over 68 percent of ACF’s $9.4 billion discretionary budget request support programs serving young children and their families through the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the Head Start program. For FY 2000, we are requesting a substantial increase for the Head Start program and will maintain the increased level advance funded in FY 1999 appropriations for the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Other discretionary increases include those requested for Transitional Living for Runaway and Homeless Youth, Violent Crime Reduction, Individual Development Accounts, Victims of Torture and Adoption Opportunities. In addition, the Administration for Children and Families is seeking continued funding for a wide range of programs serving some of this nation’s most vulnerable populations, including Low Income Home Energy Assistance, Community Services Block Grant, programs for persons with developmental disabilities, Native Americans, and refugees.

Entitlement increases are for Child Care, Independent Living, Safe and Stable Families and the Social Services Block Grant.

I would like to highlight a few key programmatic initiatives in our FY 2000 request.

Child Care Initiative

The Clinton Administration has been committed to making work pay through a variety of supports for working families, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, Family and Medical Leave, and child health insurance. In this year’s budget proposal, the President continues his commitment to working families. We very much appreciate last year’s advance appropriation of over $1 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, including an increase of $173 million to improve the quality of child care, and $10 million for research, demonstration and evaluation activities. The FY 2000 request proposes to maintain this level of support in FY 2001.

However, affordable and adequate child care remains out of reach for many working families. While the average family pays about 7 percent of its income for child care, child care consumes about a quarter of the income of low-income families who pay for care.

In addition, research shows that when children are in better quality child care programs, they have stronger language, pre-mathematics, and social skills; better relationships with their teachers; and stronger self-esteem. Despite the known link between the quality of care and a good education, serious concerns about the quality of child care that many children receive have emerged. Recently, even the basic health and safety of child care has become a national concern.

Of the 10 million children in working families with incomes below 200 percent of poverty, we served 1.25 million in FY 1997, slightly more than 10 percent of those eligible. In response to this great need, the FY 2000 budget includes increases of nearly $2 billion under child care entitlement programs, of which $1.2 billion will expand child care subsidies. These new funds, combined with child care funds provided under welfare reform, will enable the program to serve an additional 500,000 in 2000. We also are requesting $600 million to create the Early Learning Fund. This fund will enable States to provide challenge grants to communities to protect the health and safety of the youngest and most vulnerable children in child care and promote their early learning and development, with focus on language development and emergent literacy. Funds requested for child care will provide services to approximately two million children by 2004, an increase of over one million children served since 1997.

Head Start

Head Start has been and continues to be one of the Administration’s top priorities. The Head Start program fosters the development of young children from low-income families to enable them to function at their highest potential. There is an increasing body of evidence that supports the advantages that accrue to disadvantaged children and families who participate in Head Start. Studies have demonstrated that Head Start programs produce immediate gains across a diverse range of areas such as cognitive functioning, academic readiness and achievement, self-esteem, social behavior and physical health. Studies have also demonstrated that Head Start children have better high school attendance rates, are less frequently retained in grade, and have less need for special education. Head Start also has been shown to help parents improve their parenting skills, increase participation in their children’s school activities, enhance their confidence in their abilities to contribute to their communities, and, in many cases, help parents on the road to self-sufficiency. In short, Head Start works.

Head Start has made dramatic progress toward developing an outcome-oriented accountability system that can be used to determine the quality and effectiveness of Head Start. The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey - FACES - is a periodic longitudinal data collection that will provide information about children as they enter the program, their experience in Head Start, and their status both at school entry and after a year of kindergarten. The full study, launched in 1997, will follow 3200 children and families in 40 Head Start programs. The ongoing FACES effort will continue to help Head Start chart its progress in meeting GPRA goals and improving services to children and families.

The first results, based on a field test conducted in 1997 with a nationally representative sample of 2400 children and families in 40 Head Start programs across the country, gives reason for encouragement: the quality in most Head Start classrooms is good -- no classrooms score in the poor range -- and perhaps most important, program quality -- small class sizes and richer teacher-child interactions -- is related to children’s outcomes.

Because Head Start makes such a difference, we are requesting $5.3 billion for FY 2000, a $607 million increase. This level will provide a total of 877,000 infants, toddlers, children and their families with a Head Start experience, an increase of 42,000 over the number supported in FY 1999, moving closer to the President’s goal of enrolling 1 million children by the year 2002. The total children served in FY 2000 will include 45,000 infants and toddlers and their families in the Early Head Start program. 

Programs to Reduce Violent Crime

The FY 2000 request includes $102 million for Grants for Battered Women’s Shelters, an increase of $13.5 million. Violence against women is a serious problem. Nearly 2 million American women experience domestic or sexual violence each year. Over 4,200 girls and women are murdered annually by someone they know.

The increase requested is part of a $28 million Departmental initiative to curtail violence against women, and will enhance the services provided to women and their families, as well as change the social norms that permit violence against women to occur. The total requested for ACF will provide an additional 35,000 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault with counseling, shelter, and other services. We will encourage the funding and/or establishment of shelters in underserved urban and rural areas including Indian tribes and Alaskan Native villages. In addition, we will provide culturally appropriate services for underserved populations, such as ethnic minority populations and persons with disabilities.

Individual Development Accounts (IDA’s)

The Assets for Independence Act of 1998 authorized funds for a new program to empower low-income individuals to save for a home, post-secondary education, or a new business, at a match rate ranging from $.50 to $4.00 for every dollar saved. In FY 1999, $10 million was appropriated for this new program, and an additional $10 million is requested in FY 2000. The total of $20 million requested will support grants to 60 non-profit organizations, in partnership with financial institutions, to administer IDA demonstrations, serving 13,500 low-income individuals.

Victims of Torture

The budget request for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance Program includes $7.5 million to fully fund the domestic treatment activities newly authorized by the Torture Victims Relief Act, allowing us to expand services to all victims of torture, not just those who are refugees

Independent and Transitional Living Programs

As a part of the President’s adoption initiative and in implementing the Adoption and Safe Families Act, we are increasing efforts to eliminate barriers to finding children permanent placements, including the adoption of children in foster care who are legally free for adoption. Unfortunately however, there are children who will never be adopted, and by age 18 they are ineligible for foster care. Each year, 16,000 youth age out of foster care and lack the resources and support required to attain self-sufficiency. These youth require assistance in developing skills that will allow them to live independently.

As a result, the FY 2000 budget request includes a package of proposals aimed at assisting former foster care youth transition to living on their own. The proposals include an increase in the authorization for Independent Living programs from $70 million to $105 million along with an additional $5 million for a new grants-to-States program to support the living expenses for youth in transitional living programs. An increase in discretionary spending of $5 million for Runaway and Homeless Youth Transitional Living Programs also is requested to provide similar services to those youth who have been pushed out of their homes or run away. These increases will foster independence and a successful transition to adulthood, helping youth avoid long-term dependency on social welfare services.

Social Services Block Grant/Promoting Safe and Stable Families  

The FY 2000 budget request includes the full authorization level for both the Social Services Block Grant, $2.38 billion, and Promoting Safe and Stable Families, $295 million. These programs provide critical social services and resources that link human service delivery systems and provide essential family support services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize our commitment to achieving results, measuring results, and jointly working with our partners in developing and refining measurable goals and objectives as required under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Our performance measures are an integral part of the ACF budget and have been included as part of our budget document submitted to the Committee. We look forward to working with Congress on achieving these goals.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be happy to answer any questions you and the committee may have at this time.