Shutdowns, Continuing Resolutions, & More - A DEC Update on Recent Federal Activity

DEC is preparing a February Federal Update based on the amazing activities of the last 48 hours, which you will receive early next week. We are currently analyzing all the details of this recent Congressional activity.

In the meantime, we thought you would want to hear some of the good news from this morning, based on what we understand happened.

While you were sleeping last night, the federal government shut down again for the second time in a month. This morning, probably before your second cup of coffee, the President signed a new continuing resolution into law. This 5th CR lasts until March 23rd of this year. The CR includes a new budget blueprint for 2 years and lifted budget caps. The Congress will now decide how much each individual program will receive for FFY 2018. While we still do not know how much states will receive for their IDEA awards this July 1, 2018, we should have that information by the end of March.

The good news coming out of this morning includes a 5 year extension for Home Visiting, another 4 year extension of the CHIP program (bringing that to a 10 year total), a significant increase in child care funds, a 2 year extension for community health centers, funds for the opiod epidemic, and funds for state disasters.

The government is open as of this morning, with the shutdown lasting a total of about 9 hours this time.

Stay tuned for more to come from DEC on all of this recent federal activity.