The Education, Jobs, and Medicaid Assistance Act (H.R.1586), signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, August 10, providing states with additional funds to support the current fiscal year shortfalls from reduced revenues. The additional funding for states will exceed $26 billion and will extend the increased Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) another six months, until June 30, 2011. In addition to the FMAP reimbursing Medicaid expenses, states will be able to receive additional Title IV-E FMAP reimbursement for foster care, guardianship, and adoption assistance. The increased amount of 6.2 percent will continue through December 31, 2010, and then will decrease for the quarter ending March 31, 2011 to 3.2 percent and for the quarter ending June 30, 2011 to 1.2 percent. This additional revenue will support child welfare systems across the country for all allowable maintenance expenses.
An additional provision, H.R. 1586 provides $10 billion to support local school districts, helping to prevent massive layoffs of teaching staff. The legislation specifies that the funds are for jobs at the school systems and not for administrative costs. Bipartisan support and passage of the bill came because the increased Medicaid and education funds are fully offset, causing no addition to the deficit, by cutting $11.9 billion to food stamps, closing a tax loophole that allows U.S. companies to operate tax free in other countries, and $6.7 billion in recessions from Recovery Act programs and other areas. It is important to note that in ARRA, monthly food stamp benefits were increased until 2018. However, due to the offsets in H.R. 1586, effective March 31, 2014, monthly food stamp benefits will return to the levels that individuals would have received under pre-ARRA law.
About Kay Casey
Kay Casey has over 20 years of experience in federal and state child welfare policy and programs, having worked for the federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Florida Department of Children and Families prior to joining PCG. She is responsible for the review and assessment of fiscal processing systems that impact a state’s ability to identify, document, and report expenditures for federal reporting purposes accompanied with the programmatic impact on the state’s system of care. Among her projects since joining PCG, Kay has managed fiscal monitoring of Florida’s privatization of child welfare services for allowability and compliance with federal guidelines,; served as Technical Advisor and Policy Reviewer for a Pennsylvania (PA) statewide quality control administration for Title IV-E compliance services for 67 PA counties; served as Business Project Manager for a PA SACWIS feasibility study; and provided ongoing technical assistance on federal policy changes as they impact the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Children and Families,and State of Indiana Department of Children Services.
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