Congress Likely to Wind Down Activity – Keep MFP Discussions Alive

According to the Associated Press:

“With passage of an enormous budget bill, the GOP-controlled Congress all but wrapped up its legislating for the year. 

[…]

Congress’ spring agenda is thin. It includes modest plans to finish a banking bill that rolls back some of the regulations put in place after the financial crisis and pass a big farm bill that sets agriculture and school nutrition policies. The Senate also has to begin confirmation hearings for Trump’s nominees for secretary of state and CIA director.

The one legislative lift will be another spending bill when the one Trump signed into law expires at the end of September.” Read the full article here.

This is important to note as lower Congressional activity means advocates will have to work harder to bring attention to their issues. As ANCOR previously mentioned, the most recent omnibus spending bill did not include renewing the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program, which expired in 2016. MFP is an important rebalancing program and ANCOR urges its members to continue making its renewal relevant in Congress. Many states are already running out of funding, leading them to scale back their offerings.

Our coalition partners at the Jewish Federations of North America have recently updated the following statistics on the status of MFP funding in the states:

9 states have run out of funding: DE, IL, KS, MA, MI, NH, ND, TX, VA

The remaining 36 states in the program are expected to run out of funds this year: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, HI, IA, ID, IN, KY, LA, MD, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, WA, WI, WV.

For assistance with outreach to Congress on this issue, please reach out to Doris Parfaite-Claude, Federal Advocacy and Research Manager, at [email protected] for assistance.