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Bill
Notes

Child Welfare Emergency Assistance Act of 2020

S. 4172 · 116th Congress · Jul 2, 2020 · Lineage

A BILL

To provide emergency funding for child welfare services provided under parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act, and for other purposes.

1. Short title; table of contents

(a)
Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Child Welfare Emergency Assistance Act of 2020”.
(b)
Table of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

2. Purpose

It is the purpose of this Act to provide funding for States and Indian Tribes and tribal organizations to increase their ability to meet the needs of children, youth, and families impacted by the COVID–19 public health emergency through the provision of community-based services and supports; to enhance resources and supports available to kinship caregivers, child welfare caseworkers, and courts handling child welfare proceedings; to place a moratorium on youth “aging out” of foster care; and to maximize the participation and supports made available to racial and ethnic minorities, kinship care families, families experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness, families with low-incomes, families with recently unemployed caregivers, young parents, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth.

3. Definitions

In this Act:
(1)
Appropriate committees of congress— The term appropriate committees of Congress means the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate.
(2)
COVID–19 public health emergency— The term COVID–19 public health emergency means the public health emergency declared by the Secretary pursuant to section 319 of the Public Health Service Act on January 31, 2020, entitled “Determination that a Public Health Emergency Exists Nationwide as the Result of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus” and includes any renewal of such declaration pursuant to such section 319.
(3)
State— The term State means each of the 50 States the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.
(4)
Other terms— The terms Secretary, Indian tribe, tribal organization, and tribal consortium have the meanings given those terms for purpose of parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 621 et seq., 670 et seq.).