Special Report #14, 2000
Click here to get the full text of Foster Care: A Guide to Who Controls Federal Programs, Policies & Purse Strings in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). (Note: the pagination and format in PDF may differ from the published version.)
Click here to download
the PDF file reader (free).
Executive Summary
It's hard to make your voice count if you don't know who to talk to. This booklet tells you who the federal movers and shakers in the area of foster care are. It also tells you how to reach them.
The Policy Exchange developed this directory to help policy makers, practitioners, researchers, analysts, advocates, and children and youth in foster care understand who controls federal foster care programs, policies and purse strings. These programs, which account for billions of dollars in funding, range from the federal "IV-E" program that provides matching foster care funds to states, to the Independent Living program that provides grants to states to help foster care youth transition to life on their own.
We urge you to use this directory to let the people who can make a difference know your opinions about how to make federal foster care programs work better.
What Is in This Directory?
This directory contains basic information -- name, title, address, phone, fax, email -- for key federal staff who have power and influence over federal foster care programs, policies and purse strings.
This directory has two major sections: Congress (which makes the laws and determines funding), and the Executive Branch (which administers programs).
The section on Key Staff in the Congress is divided into five parts:
- Authorizing Committees -- These committees draft the laws -- both House and Senate, and both Republicans (the Majority) and Democrats (the Minority).
- Appropriations Committees -- These committees draft the bills that ultimately determine who gets the money, and how much they get -- both House and Senate, and both Republicans and Democrats.
- Budget Committees -- These Congressional budgeteers set broad spending targets for all program areas -- both House and Senate, and both Republicans and Democrats.
- Congressional Leadership sets the policy agenda and legislative schedule -- both House and Senate, and both Republicans and Democrats.
- Congressional Support Agencies provide members of Congress with nonpartisan research and analytical assistance. In the area of foster care, the three most important support agencies are the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service and the General Accounting Office.
The section on Key Staff in the Executive Branch includes:
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, which is in charge of federal foster care programs.
- The White House, Office of Management and Budget, which staffs the development of the President's Budget on all issues, including foster care.
What Is Not in This Directory?
As long as this list of committees, agencies and names may look, there are many things that this publication does not do:
- This booklet does not tell you who the key people at the state or local levels are.
- This booklet does not tell you who the key people are in the courts.
- This booklet does not tell you the names of other "key" staff who may be very influential, but who do not have "line" authority for federal foster care programs.
- This booklet does not tell you the key people who control other federal (as well as state and local) programs that are especially important to children and youth in foster care.
- This booklet does not tell you how federal foster care programs work. You can find basic programmatic information, as well as the transcript of our July 1999 seminar on The Federal Role in Helping Young People Transition from Foster Care, on the Policy Exchange Web site (www.policyexchange.iel.org).
Finally, this booklet does not tell you what you should say to the people listed. That's entirely up to you.
For ordering information, please see our Publications page.
Click here to get the full text of Foster Care: A Guide to Who Controls Federal Programs, Policies & Purse Strings in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
Click here to download the PDF file reader (free).
Back to top
