CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

INSIGHTi

Supporting America’s Children and Families Act (H.R. 9076)

Updated January 6, 2025

The Supporting America’s Children and Families Act (H.R. 9076) was signed by the President on January 4, 2025. The bill passed the House on September 18, 2024, by a vote of 405-10 and was approved in the Senate by unanimous consent early on December 21, 2024. As enacted, the measure incorporates the texts of two earlier proposals, which in July were unanimously approved by the House Ways and Means Committee: the Protecting America’s Children by Strengthening Families Act (H.R. 9076, Title I) and the Strengthening State and Tribal Child Support Enforcement Act (H.R. 7906). The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, combined, these measures would reduce federal spending by $136 million across FY2024-FY2034.

Protecting America’s Children by Strengthening Families (Title I)

As enacted, Title I of H.R. 9076 extends funding authorizations and make amendments to child welfare programs included in Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (SSA), including the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services (CWS) and the MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) programs.

Under those programs, all states (including the District of Columbia and five territories) and numerous tribes receive formula grant funding to support a broad range of services to children and families. A portion of PSSF program funding must be reserved to support the Court Improvement Program (CIP), Regional Partnership Grants (RPGs), and Monthly Caseworker Visit (MCV) grants, and for evaluation and technical assistance. In each of FY2018-FY2024, final appropriations laws have also directed some PSSF funding for kinship navigator programs. Total FY2024 funding for the CWS and PSSF programs was $667 million (after sequestration of PSSF mandatory funds).

Title I of H.R. 9076 extends the authorization of appropriations for the IV-B programs through FY2029. It maintains discretionary authorizations at current law levels but beginning with FY2026 raises the annual PSSF mandatory funding to $420 million (+$75 million). Most of the additional mandatory funds will go to increasing formula funding to state and tribal child welfare agencies for child and family services (+$55 million). Remaining amounts are to increase the annual mandatory set-asides for CIP to $40 million (+$10 million) and for RPGs to $30 million (+$10 million).

Congressional Research Service

https://crsreports.congress.gov

IN12424

Congressional Research Service 2

Other Title I amendments in the enacted bill appear intended to boost availability of community-based resources for families, through family resource centers and electronic portals to connect community resources with specific needs, and to clarify or allow access to PSSF services for youth (up to age 26) and kinship families. Title I of H.R. 9076 explicitly authorizes use of PSSF funds for short-term, non- recurring benefits (e.g., utility payments) to address a family crisis that might otherwise lead to a child’s foster care entry. Further, the measure revises CWS or PSSF plan provisions, as of FY2026 to

• require policies to prevent separation of families solely due to poverty,

• direct states to inform parents and children about available independent legal representation in child welfare proceedings,

• add attention to meeting mental health needs of children in foster care, and

• call for standards for use of virtual caseworker visits for youth in care at age 18 or older.

States/tribes will be required to consult with families and youth with experience in the child welfare system, and to report on how they incorporate youth guidance in their child and family services plans.

Beginning with FY2026, the enacted H.R. 9076 directs a full 3% of all CWS and PSSF funding to formula grants for tribal child and family service programs, funding reserved for tribal CIP is doubled (from $1 million to $2 million), and HHS is required to streamline Title IV-B reporting for certain tribes. To improve compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act, Title I of H.R. 9076 directs states to consult with tribes on specific ICWA requirements (including timely notice of custody proceedings involving Indian children and recordkeeping related to active efforts to prevent the break-up of Indian families, transfers of jurisdiction for custody proceedings, and termination of parental rights proceedings). HHS is required to consult with tribes and produce guidance for states on ICWA compliance, including through use of data.

Title I of H.R. 9076 amends the SSA to reserve out of discretionary PSSF funding (for each of FY2026- FY2029), $10 million for competitive grants to support kinship navigator programs and $5 million for competitive grants to accelerate development of prevention services that meet Family First practice standards. Further, it increases the reservation of mandatory PSSF funding as of FY2026 for MCV grants to $26 million (+6 million). While it eliminates a $6 million set-aside of PSSF mandatory funds to HHS for evaluation and technical assistance, it maintains the current law 3.3% reservation of PSSF discretionary funds for those purposes.

Additionally, Title I of H.R. 9076 authorizes $35 million in annual discretionary appropriations (FY2026- FY2029) to support collaborations between state agencies for child welfare and adult correctional facilities to carry out projects that promote meaningful relationships between incarcerated parents and their children in foster care.

Title I of H.R. 9076 makes other changes, including requiring HHS to review and address administrative burden under the Title IV-B program, produce guidance on improved data collection and reporting on youth in residential treatment facilities, and report on post-adoption/guardianship services.

Strengthening State and Tribal Child Support Enforcement (Title II)

Title II of H.R. 9076 expands access to federal tax information (FTI) for specified child support enforcement (CSE) programs and their contractors. All states (including the District of Columbia and three territories) and 61 tribal nations operate CSE programs pursuant to Title IV-D of the SSA. Certain CSE services (e.g., the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program) are supported via the exchange of FTI. State and local IV-D program access to that data is governed by Internal Revenue Code Section 6103. FTI may only be accessed by contractors of those programs on a limited basis. Tribal IV-D programs were not explicitly included in the law that allowed state and local CSE programs to have FTI access.

Congressional Research Service 3

IN12424 · VERSION 6 · UPDATED

Title II of H.R. 9076 seeks to provide tribal IV-D programs with FTI access comparable to that of state and local CSE programs. It also allows contractors of state, local, and tribal IV-D agencies to have comparable access to federal tax data that agency employees have for IV-D purposes. For further information about this proposal, see CRS Insight IN11748, Overview of Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Access to Taxpayer Data and Recent Legislation (Title II of H.R. 9076).

Author Information

Emilie Stoltzfus Specialist in Social Policy

^{Jessica Tollestrup}

Specialist in Social Policy

Disclaimer

This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.