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Action Center |
Member Path |
Social Services Block Grant
Action The President's proposed budget for FY 2009 calls for an additional cut in the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), taking it from an already reduced level of $1.7 billion to $1.2 billion. Child care, adult day care, home-delivered meals, employment services, prevention and intervention programs, special services for people with disabilities, pregnancy and parenting, services for youth at risk, child welfare programs and adult protective services will all be hurt by such a dramatic reduction at a time when providers and the vulnerable individuals and families they serve need these services the most. SSBG represents a federal commitment to the provision of critical social services for vulnerable populations, and GU opposes the Administration’s proposed cut. Help us fight this further drop in SSBG funding by letting us know what this would mean to you or the people you serve. E-mail your story at gu@gu.org. Background SSBG, under Title XX of the Social Security Act, is a capped entitlement program that provides assistance to states for the delivery of social services to adults, children, and people with disabilities. Funds are allocated in proportion to a state’s population and can be flexibly distributed to address unmet needs. Most of SSBG expenditures are directed to child day care, foster care, adult protective services, child protective services, and specialized services for people with disabilities. SSBG expenditures are increasingly supporting housing services, pregnancy and parenting services, and adult foster care services.
To date, SSBG appropriations have not reached authorized funding levels. SSBG is currently funded at $1.7 billion, which is more than $1 billion less that its authorized level of $2.8 billion. SSBG funding can be supplemented with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding. In 2006, states reported SSBG expenditures of some $2.7 billion, 34 percent ($944 million) of which they transferred from the TANF Block Grant. (TANF has problems of its own – click here for more information.) Connect Join the SSBG coalition to receive updates on the current status of SSBG as well as action advisories. Email gu@gu.org to be added to the coalition email list.
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Social Services Block Grant