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H.R. 2824: Increasing Opportunity through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act

Sep 26, 2017 at 4:04 p.m. ET. On Passage of the Bill in the House.

This was a vote to pass H.R. 2824 (115th) in the House.

H.R. 2824 reauthorizes the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program through Fiscal Year 2022.

Specifically, this bill renews an expired requirement that grantees of the program demonstrate improvement in specified benchmark areas three years after program implementation (such as reducing child abuse and neglect, increasing self-sufficiency, improving maternal and newborn health, reducing crime and domestic violence, and improving school readiness and achievement), continuing this requirement in subsequent years. If the grantee fails to do so, they must develop and implement a corrective action plan, which may be subject to approval by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If the grantee continues to fail to demonstrate improvement HHS may terminate the program grant.

The bill also specifies that states seeking to improve in regards to the benchmark on self-sufficiency must include measures of employment and earnings, rather than only measures of health insurance coverage and educational attainment.

The bill allows a grantee to use program funds to support a “pay-for-outcomes initiative,” meaning grantees could decide to pay for services based on whether they deliver the outcomes they are seeking, instead of paying simply based on the number of people served. In order to ensure these “pay for outcomes” initiatives are successful, payment would be tied to a third-party evaluation using high-quality research methodologies so payments are made only when agreed upon outcomes are achieved.

The bill also requires each state receiving grant funds under this program to review and update the previous statewide needs assessment by October 1, 2020.

The bill requires grantees to provide matching funds under the program, beginning with 30% of total MIECHV costs in FY2020, 40% in FY2021, and 50% for FY2022 or any succeeding fiscal years.

The bill requires HHS to designate and use data exchange standards for information that a State agency operating the program is required to electronically exchange with another State agency or the Federal government.

Source: Republican Policy Committee

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Totals

All Votes R D
Aye 51%
 
 
214
212
 
2
 
No 49%
 
 
209
20
 
189
 
Not Voting
 
 
10
7
 
3
 

Passed. Simple Majority Required. Source: house.gov.

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Republican - Aye Democrat - Aye Republican - No Democrat - No
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Notes: The Speaker’s Vote?
The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)
“Aye” or “Yea”?

“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.

The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.

All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.

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