Campaign Promises

Departments -> Health & Human Services -> Children


ItemHealth & Human Services
ChildrenGrade
HE-8 The Promise: "Will provide affordable high-quality child care to working families."
When/Where: President-Elect Barack Obama's Plans to Fight Poverty, 11/08
Source: https://www.childrensdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/president-elect-obama-plan-cdf-priorities-americas-child.pdf
Status:The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 pumped an additional $2B into the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) coffers to supplement the $2.127B appropriated for the CCDBG during the regular FY2009 budget process. With these funds, most states were able to sustain their child care assistance programs.

The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 (S. 1086) was signed into law by President Obama on 11/19/2014. This law authorized the following levels of funding for child care and development:
FY2015....$2.360B
FY2016....$2.478B
FY2017....$2.540B
FY2018....$2.603B
FY2019....$2.669B
FY2020....$2.749B

This promise was fulfilled.
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HE-9 The Promise: "...will work with schools to create more healthful environments for children, including assistance with contract policy development for local vendors, grant support for school-based health screening programs and clinical services, increased financial support for physical education, and educational programs for students."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "To Lower Health Care Costs and Ensure Affordable, Accessible Health Coverage For All," dated 10/03/08.
Source: http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i202/f08/lectures/Obama_Healthcare-1.pdf
Status:Fulfillment of this promise got off to a very slow start, with only $100K enacted to promote a "healthful environment" for children in FY2010. President Obama's FY2011 budget submission did a bit of catching up by proposing $6.3M to create healthier school environments for all children.

In light of Obama Administration objectives to reduce obesity in children, the first/critical step was the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, which was extended to 09/30/10 under the Agriculture Appropriations Bill of 2009.

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) introduced the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010" (S. 3307) on 05/05/10. This bill passed the Senate on 08/05/10 and the House on 12/02/10. President Obama signed S. 3307 into law on 12/13/10. S.3307 supported every aspect of this promise including vendor contracting policy, clinical services, child physical activity and education programs. This legislation remained in effect through FY2015.

This promise was fulfilled.
1.00
HE-10 The Promise: "Part of Obama's early childhood intervention plan will be directed at coordinating fragmented community programs to help provide parents with information about screening for disabilities as infants and again as two-year olds."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Empower Americans with Disabilities," dated 09/06/08.
Source: http://www.thearc.org/document.doc?id=3073
Status:Section 2951 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) of 2010 stipulated in part that the purpose of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs amendment to Title V of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 701 et seq.) was to "improve coordination of services for at risk communities." The Act further specified that within 6 months of its enactment, each State would conduct a statewide needs assessment. This research had to address community-wide strategic planning and assessments conducted under the Head Start Act, as well as an "inventory of unmet needs and community-based and prevention-focused programs."

Under the ACA, this effort was authorized funding at the following levels:
FY2010....$100M
FY2011....$250M
FY2012....$350M
FY2013....$400M
FY2014....$450M.

This was a significant step toward "coordinating fragmented community programs" that should have led to the dissemination of information to parents about having their children screened for disabilities.

This promise was fulfilled.
1.00
HE-11 The Promise: "...will expand the highly-successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all 570,000 low-income, first-time mothers each year. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families."
When/Where: Plan for America: "Blueprint for Change," dated 10/09/08
Source: https://www.documentcloud.org/ Obama and Biden's documents/550007-barack-obama-2008-blueprint-for-change.html
Status:Section 2951 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama on 03/23/10, provided "grants to eligible entities to enable the entities to deliver services under early childhood home visitation programs." $1.5B was authorized by Congress for this purpose.

This promise was fulfilled.
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