Federal Plan for Changes in Child Care Draws Protest
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/politics/10poverty.html
A Bush administration plan to reorganize programs for low-income
families has brought protests by service agencies around the country,
which fear it signals a waning in the federal commitment to child care
assistance for working mothers.
Some 240 agencies and advocacy groups have signed a letter
to the secretary of health and human services, Michael O. Leavitt,
asking him not to downgrade the Child Care Bureau, a unit created by
the Clinton administration to oversee subsidies for low-income mothers
and improve the quality of child care.
The proposed change, the letter says, "minimizes the importance of
child care assistance in supporting working families, particularly
low-income parents."
The plan, which requires no Congressional approval, was made known
to lawmakers in a letter from Mr. Leavitt on Feb. 22.
All sides agree that child care subsidies are needed to help welfare
recipients, the poorest of the poor, go to work. But by law, federal aid
is also given more widely to mothers in low-paying jobs, who may be
struggling to stay off welfare in the first place.
In another change that has prompted questions, Mr. Leavitt wrote
in his letter of Feb. 22 that program officers in the department's
10 regional bureaus would report directly to their respective chiefs
in Washington, rather than through regional administrators.
Critics say this will make it harder for regional administrators to
coordinate activities and will strengthen the position of political
appointees in Washington over career experts in the field.
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The Bush version of late-term abortion.
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