Latest news with #HJR5
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After federal funding cut, Alaska Legislature asks Congress to help rural schools
Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan, speaks Feb. 21, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) A group of Alaska's rural school districts are asking for help after the federal government failed to renew a program that sends grant money to logging-dependent areas. On Monday, the Alaska Legislature joined the call for help by passing House Joint Resolution 5, which asks Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. That act sent $12.6 million to Alaska schools in federal fiscal year 2023, but Congress has thus far failed to reauthorize the program. The state Senate passed HJR 5 by a 19-1 vote on May 9 after modifying a version originally written by Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan. The House agreed with the changes, 37-3, on Monday. The votes against the resolution came from conservative Republicans who generally oppose federal spending. The Secure Rural Schools Act, as it is commonly known, was designed to compensate rural school districts for tax revenue lost as the federal government began to restrict logging in the 1990s. In 2023, the law provided more than $250 million to districts nationwide, with about 5% of the funding coming to Alaska. For some of Southeast Alaska's rural school districts, the money was a big part of the local budget. Yakutat, for example, received more than $6,500 per student. Wrangell had almost $3,500, and the money was worth $584 for each of Ketchikan's 2,045 students. HJR 5, which will be sent to every member of Congress, asks for retroactive funding and for a permanent funding source to pay for the bill. It also encourages Congress to open more federal land to timber cutting 'in a manner that supports rural economic revitalization, conserves habitat, and promotes forest health.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska legislators ask feds to reinstate program that sent money to rural schools
Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan, speaks Feb. 21, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska House of Representatives is asking Congress to fix a problem with a program that pays money to rural school districts affected by the decline of the timber industry. On Monday, the House voted 35-4 to pass a resolution urging Congress to reinstate the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. Congress failed to renew the act earlier this year, costing rural Alaska districts more than $12 million in funding. Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan, introduced House Resolution 5 after the congressional failure. 'This represents more than $12 million of funding that is directly being used for our schools and our communities,' he said Monday on the House floor. 'This has a significant impact to our communities, and if this is not renewed, it will cause hardship for many of our small communities without a way out.' The communities of Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Juneau and Craig all testified in support of the resolution, which also asks that the act be permanently funded. The four votes against the resolution came from Reps. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River; Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake; Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla; and Sarah Vance, R-Homer. Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, was excused absent. Speaking on the House floor, McCabe said he thinks it's a mistake for Alaska communities to rely on federal funding and that the state is owed land by the federal government. Developing that land could generate revenue that would offset the need for federal help, he said. Other lawmakers spoke for the majority of House members in favor of the resolution. 'I think it's a matter of fundamental fairness,' said House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage. 'It is the most responsible thing we can do to speak up for our neighbors.' HJR 5 now goes to the Senate for consideration. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
CYFD reform package advancing quickly; other bills make slower progress
As the Roundhouse rounds third base on this year's legislative session, lawmakers are racing to bring home a few measures aimed at reforming New Mexico's troubled child welfare system. The lead runner seems to be Senate Bill 42, a measure unveiled late last week that bundles multiple other bills addressing child welfare issues and which is already headed to the Senate floor after unanimously clearing the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday evening. Other notable measures — such as House Joint Resolution 5, which would completely overhaul CYFD's leadership structure, and House Bill 5, which would establish a new oversight office for the agency — have moved slower. With time left in the session dwindling, it's unclear what will make it through. 'Given the length of time that we have left, it becomes more difficult as each day passes,' said Rep. Eleanor Chávez, D-Albuquerque and a sponsor of HJR 5. SB 42 marks an apparent compromise between Democrats, Republicans and the executive branch. CYFD and the governor have thrown their support behind the bill after being at odds with legislators over other proposals this session, including HJR 5 and HB 5. While the child welfare reform package leaves out large-scale oversight or leadership reforms, it would implement priorities laid out by the Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham during her State of the State address: namely, moving management of the federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, out of CYFD and holding families accountable to following through with care plans for substance-exposed children. CYFD spokesperson Andrew Skobinsky said in an email the New Mexico Department of Health, which would take over CARA, is 'better equipped to manage the healthcare and medical implications of children born substance-exposed/dependent.' Republican lawmakers and others have also criticized state law for not requiring families with babies exposed to substances to follow through on care plans prescribed to them. SB 42 would bolster the state's response to those families, requiring CYFD to assess whether a family that does not follow through with a care plan is able to keep that baby safe. Skobinsky said that could lead to an abuse and neglect investigation and, possibly, the child being taken into CYFD custody. SB 42 also incorporates other reform efforts, including one requiring identifying information to be released when a child dies or nearly dies while in the care of a foster family under investigation by CYFD. Another would require the agency to enact a plan pursuant to a federal plan allowing states to use more dollars on prevention services. Though the federal Family First Prevention Services Act was passed in 2018, CYFD has yet to have a plan adopting the legislation be approved by the federal government. The agency resubmitted its plan late last year, and hopes to hear back in April. Other measures While SB 42 has backing from leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as from the governor and CYFD, HB 5 and HJR 5 have less broad support. HB 5, which seeks to establish an Office of the Child Advocate under the New Mexico Department of Justice tasked with monitoring the services CYFD provides to children and receiving complaints about issues at the agency, has faced opposition from CYFD. The agency has argued that while it welcomes oversight and accountability, HB 5 is not the way to do it. Still, the bill, which was identified by House Democrats before the start of the session as a priority for the caucus, has garnered some Republican support. House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, said HB 5 and SB 42 are examples of everyone 'finally on the same page and trying to get something across the finish line.' 'This administration has had six years to fix this, and I think that everyone finally [has] come to the position of, 'They need help, and they need lots of ideas and lots of cooks in the kitchen,' and hopefully we get an answer this year,' Armstrong said in an interview. 'If we don't, it's on the majority — it's not on me.' HB 5 cleared the floor last week and awaits passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee. That said, a similar iteration of HB 5 failed in 2023. But HJR 5, which passed out of the House Judiciary Committee the same day HB 5 and other CYFD-related measures did, has lagged behind its peers and is still awaiting passage by the full House. The resolution is ambitious, asking lawmakers and voters — who would also have to approve HJR 5 should it clear the Roundhouse — to remove CYFD from the Governor's Cabinet and install a commission that would hire a director to manage the agency. In addition to stiff opposition from the executive branch, the resolution also drew concerns from field experts tasked with tracking the state's progress in the landmark Kevin S. settlement, reached after over a dozen foster children sued New Mexico for failing to fulfill its duty to kids in state care. The experts argued in a letter child welfare systems in other states actually benefited from moving away from commission-style governance structures and that keeping CYFD under the purview of the governor better facilitates communication between state agencies. Chávez, however, sees the resolution as a way for the Legislature to take matters into its own hands, noting that several years have passed since the Kevin S. settlement was reached with little to show for them. 'That agency has had some extreme turnover related to politics,' she said. '... The other piece, too, is that — and I don't want to say that any of the secretaries don't work hard — but they don't have the child welfare experience that's needed to guide this agency not just through the current struggles but also provide the kind of leadership that that expertise and experience would provide.'
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CYFD reform efforts inch forward in the Roundhouse
Feb. 21—SANTA FE — One by one, New Mexico's youth, education, health and workforce secretaries lined up in a House committee room Friday to speak against an effort to overhaul the state's Children, Youth and Families Department. Despite the opposition, the House Health and Human Services Committee voted 9-1 to enact House Joint Resolution 5, a measure that would allow voters to remove CYFD from the governor's oversight and instead create a five-member independent commission to hire a CYFD executive director by July 2027. It's not the only CYFD reform effort the committee passed Friday. Members also voted 9-1 to pass House Bill 5, which would create an Office of the Child Advocate administratively attached to the New Mexico Department of Justice, formerly the Attorney General's Office. "We need to do something now. We cannot continue to wait and put this off," said HJR5 bill sponsor Rep. Eleanor Chavez, D-Albuquerque. New Mexico has long struggled to address child welfare issues, and lawmakers have increased spending on CYFD in recent years in an attempt to hire more social workers. However, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has opposed efforts to increase outside oversight of the agency, instead ordering the creation of a new advisory council and office of innovation within CYFD. Both pieces of legislation still need to cross over to the Senate side of the Roundhouse before getting a chance at passage, though only House Bill 5 would require the governor's signature. The efforts have failed in past years. "CYFD welcomes accountability, oversight and partnership in improving CYFD to better serve New Mexicans, but an Office of Child Advocate attached to the Department of Justice just doesn't achieve this," CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados told the committee. Similarly, Deputy Secretary of Protective Services and Juvenile Justice Valerie Sandoval, speaking on behalf of Casados, said other legislative proposals — not HJR5 — would help solve the agency's challenges. "Removing CYFD as a Cabinet-level agency would hinder collaboration with key state agencies essential to child welfare, education and health," she said. She brought up a letter child welfare advocates Judith Meltzer and Kevin Ryan sent earlier this week to Casados and Tara Ford, counsel on a settlement in a lawsuit known as Kevin S., which sought reform of New Mexico's child welfare system. "In our view, child welfare services cannot be successfully operated in a vacuum. ... Commission-led governance is very likely, in our view, to exacerbate many of the problems we have documented in New Mexico," Meltzer and Ryan wrote, both of whom were dubbed "co-neutrals" as part of the settlement to help guide reform efforts. Speaking as a bill expert, Alvin Sallee, a foster parent and professor emeritus for New Mexico State University's social work program, said HJR5 would remove politics from CYFD, eliminating a secretary appointee coming at the whim of any gubernatorial administration. Under the resolution, the five commission members would be appointed staggered six-year terms by the governor, the president pro tempore of the Senate, the speaker of the House of Representatives, the minority floor leader of the Senate and the minority floor leader of the House of Representatives. Sallee compared the setup to that of the state's Public Regulation Commission, which recently went through an overhaul to become a three-member appointed commission, all serving staggered six-year Alan Martinez, R-Bernalillo, said he was dead set against HJR5 until the only ones who spoke in opposition were state Cabinet or deputy secretaries. Secretaries Mariana Padilla of the Public Education Department, who still is awaiting Senate confirmation; Kari Armijo of the Health Care Authority; Elizabeth Groginsky of the Early Childhood Education and Care Department; and Sarita Nair of the Department of Workforce Solutions also spoke against HJR5. "It says a lot about circling the wagons and trying to protect the status quo," Martinez said. Rep. Nicole Chavez, R-Albuquerque, voted against HJR5. She told the Journal after the committee she doesn't believe the measure would substantially improve the department; it "shifts the blame for CYFD's ineffectiveness from the Governor's Office to a politically appointed body." "I have appreciated Secretary Casados' involvement and participation during this legislative session and hope we can reform our (Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act) and place safeguards to ensure New Mexico's children are protected," she said. "Our state has invested millions of dollars following the Kevin S. lawsuit and yet CYFD continues to fail our children." Rep. Pamelya Herndon, D-Albuquerque, was the sole vote against HB5. She asked a few clarifying questions on the bill during the discussion but didn't explain her "no" vote afterward. She's also a sponsor of HJR5.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Child welfare reform experts oppose NM CYFD commission plan
The State of New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, 1031 Lamberton Place NE in Albuquerque, photographed on Friday December 18, 2015. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal) Two of the people who oversee reforms to New Mexico's foster care system say lawmakers' plans to create an independent agency and remove oversight from the executive branch would only make things worse. House Joint Resolution 5 would move the Children, Youth and Families Department out of the governor's direct responsibility and place governance of the agency in the hands of an appointed five-member commission. On Tuesday, two state child welfare reform experts expressed their opposition to HJR 5 in a letter to New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department Cabinet Secretary Teresa Casados and Tara Ford, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against New Mexico's child welfare system known as Kevin S. The letter's authors, Judith Meltzer and Kevin Ryan, are the two 'co-neutrals' appointed by a federal court to oversee New Mexico's progress in the landmark settlement agreement resulting from the lawsuit. The co-neutrals 'genuinely are the most skilled and experienced experts in the nation,' said Mike Hart, the attorney who initially took the state government to court over its failed foster care system, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month. 'They turned around New Jersey, they turned around Oklahoma, they turned around Tennessee,' Hart told the committee. 'These folks know what they're doing.' Meltzer and Ryan wrote that while they generally don't comment on legislative matters 'we believe it is important that we share our views on this proposed change, based on both of our experiences in multiple states involved in child welfare reform.' 'While we understand fully the need for effective leadership and accountability to improve the performance of CYFD on behalf of New Mexico's children and families, we feel strongly that this change will not help and may, in fact, make improvement efforts even more difficult,' the co-neutrals wrote. Rep. Eleanor Chávez and House Speaker Javier Martínez, both Albuquerque Democrats, are sponsoring HJR 5. In a written statement on Wednesday, Chávez referred to Meltzer and Ryan as 'out-of-state co-neutrals' and said she was not previously aware of their concerns. 'New Mexicans know that the problems at CYFD are longstanding and pre-date the Kevin S. settlement,' she said. 'Since the settlement agreement, CYFD has failed to make any progress and New Mexico's children continue to pay the price. There should be absolutely no doubt that we have to make significant changes.' HJR 5 is one of several solutions lawmakers and experts have worked on for months to better protect children, she said. 'We trust the voters of New Mexico to evaluate the merits of this proposal and believe they deserve a say in improving the outcomes for our state's children,' Chávez said. Threatened and Restrained Martínez had not responded to Source's request for comment as of press time. The state's Risk Management Division recently reported a $3.9 million shortfall in its settlement fund, with child welfare cases playing a heavy role. In 2024, CYFD settled for $18 million across 12 settlements, according to a Source NM review of the settlement data available on the state's portal. The settlements ended lawsuits alleging the department's responsibility for the deaths or severe injuries of children in state custody, from years ago. In a written statement on Wednesday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she is grateful that the co-neutrals took the 'extraordinary step' of sharing their concerns about the legislation. 'These neutral monitors, who oversee child welfare reforms across multiple states, rarely comment on legislation,' she said. 'Their intervention highlights the serious risks this proposal poses to our reform efforts. The letter also points to successful transformations in New Jersey, DC, and Oklahoma – all achieved through direct executive accountability. I thank them for sharing their expertise and weighing in on this legislation.' Meltzer and Ryan said in other states where they've both worked, part of what led to better outcomes was creating child welfare departments as cabinet-level agencies reporting directly to governors. 'In states where we have witnessed reform take root, the Governors' direct oversight and support played a significant role in prioritizing child welfare reform within government, eliminating barriers and advancing accountability,' they wrote. The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee voted 4-3 in favor of HJR 5 on Feb. 10. The House Health and Human Services Committee is scheduled to hear the joint resolution Friday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
