Committee member highlights bipartisan passage of foster-care reforms

A Committee member said the House Committee on Ways and Means has moved to overhaul federal supports for foster youth and families, calling the package the most significant changes to the Chafee Foster Care Program since 1999.

"For years, the ways and means committee has been working to modernize and reform our nation's foster care system and identify the many ways federal programs could be improved to better serve our nation's youth," the Committee member said, describing the scope of the committee's effort.

The Committee member said the committee advanced six separate bills and reported them out on a unanimous, bipartisan basis. "In partnership with 1st lady Melania Trump, we passed 6 bills out of committee on a unanimous bipartisan basis," the member said, and added that the measures were later consolidated.

Those measures were combined in the House as the Fostering the Future Act and "passed the House of Representatives as a consolidated Fostering the Future Act," the Committee member said. The member described the package as updating the Chafee Foster Care Program and related federal supports that, in the member's words, were "holding youth back from their potential."

The Committee member said the package now awaits action in the U.S. Senate and expressed the expectation that it will reach the president's desk. The statement did not include a vote tally from the House floor; the member reported only that the committee-level votes were unanimous and bipartisan.

No details on the bill text, specific program changes, or implementation timelines were provided in the recorded remarks. The Committee member did not cite statutory citations or provide a schedule for Senate consideration.