In the News

U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran (TX-01) partnered with the The Fostering Collective on Friday in Tyler for a foster youth roundtable discussion with East Texas stakeholders.

The congressman invited around 20 local professionals and stakeholders to discuss the state of foster care in East Texas and to provide input about needed federal policy changes and pathways for aging out foster youth. The group also reviewed the Fostering the Future Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives in May and now awaits consideration from the Senate.

The roundtable had two primary goals, Moran said.

“One is to help the East Texas community understand what we’re doing in the Work and Welfare Subcommittee on Ways and Means as it relates to supporting foster and adoptive care services,” Moran said. “Then the second objective, which is really the more important one, is to hear from the local community, to understand further needs that we need to address and help us understand the impact of our federal policies on local support for foster care.”

The Fostering the Future Act (H.R. 7432) reforms the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, which supports foster youth ages 14 to 21. The new bill expands the Chaffee Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) cap from the current $5,000 per year for postsecondary education to $12,000 while maintaining current funding levels. It also increases access to legal services, short-term workforce training programs, federal housing programs and connects parents to Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting services.

The bill fine-tunes the Chafee Program for the first time since its creation in 1999, Moran said.

“We can increase the (ETV cap) right now without increasing overall appropriations because it’s not being used across the United States the way it should,” Moran said. “States are returning millions of dollars back to the federal government. We don’t want that money back. We want that money in the hands of foster youth that are trying to actually better themselves through education.”

Moran said when the House of Representatives was discussing the bill in Washington D.C., a student from Stephen F. Austin State University and young adult who has aged out of foster care testified $5,000 is simply not enough to cover the cost of college anymore.

“It doesn’t limit them to just a certain number of institutions and it gives them the opportunity to actually pursue the American dream the way we all want them to,” Moran said. “If you give these kids a great head start that have had a tough road in the past, then they won’t be dependent on the government in the future. They will want to do their own thing, follow that American dream, work hard, pursue education and pursue a profession. We want to give them that opportunity at the very front of their life.”

Moran said the largest issue his team hears is access to resources, especially for young adults who have aged out of foster care and are now navigating independence.

“The biggest thing that we hear from foster care families here in East Texas is, it’s tough,” Moran said. “It’s just really hard and those families need support services, and The Fostering Collective does a fabulous job and so many organizations here in East Texas wrapping their arms around these families that are taking in these kiddos in this very, very tough time, but we need to do more to make sure that they are supported.”

Moran said the bill aims to fill the gaps for children and families in transitional periods, such as transitioning out of foster care or back with their original families.

“We want to be there for them and we want to make sure that the support services that they need that they can’t get anywhere else other than the state or the federal government, that we actually step up when we need to,” Moran said.

The geographical ruralness of East Texas often creates barriers to receive access and support, Moran said.

“We’ve got folks here from Texarkana and from Longview, and from Tyler, and all over the region, talking to us about, what are they seeing on the ground and where are those rural challenges in particular that still have a lot of gaps that need to be filled by the programs that we run at the federal level,” Moran said. “We are going to respond to that.”

Moran said the federal government can’t solve all the problems, but people who are working in foster care situations every day are going to have the best solutions to how to fix an issue that the federal government can listen to and collaborate to fix.

“(They’re) the ones that are actually making a difference,” Moran said. “I want to say thank you for that, but what we can do is support you in a way that allows your institutions to work the way God has called your organizations to do. Governments are supposed to allow you to do that in an orderly fashion, but stay out of the way.”

Another challenge is access to legal services.

“They run into the need for legal services and sometimes these legal services are not covered by the Chafee Program money,” Moran said. “We need them to be because if they get caught up in a situation where they don’t have an opportunity to hire a lawyer, get legal help or a little bit of additional professional assistance or counseling that can lead to working decision making in a moment that’s very critical for them.”

The roundtable was held the day after The Fostering Collective’s annual large fundraising event “A Seat at the Table,” which Moran also attended. Justin Hayes, executive director at The Fostering Collective, a Christian nonprofit for recruitment of foster families and support resources, said he was honored to have Moran at ‘A Seat at the Table’ and the roundtable discussion.