The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 would amend the child welfare programs included in Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. The bill would authorize states to receive federal support under the Title IV-E foster care and permanency program for services and programs provided to children and their families that are intended to prevent the need for children to enter foster care, by allowing them to remain safely at home with parents, or with kin. At the same time, the bill would restrict the ability of states to claim support for children in foster care who are placed in group settings rather than in foster family homes. Additionally, the bill would extend funding authority for the child and family services programs authorized in Title IV-B of the Social Security Act and it would revise the purposes of, including eligibility for, the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) to make them more consistent with the goal of helping all youth who experience foster care at an older age make a successful transition to adulthood. Programs authorized in Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the Social Security Act are administered by the Children's Bureau, which is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF). This report begins with a brief overview of the Title IV-B and Title IV-E programs that would be amended by the Family First Prevention Services Act, follows with a short summary of the bill, and its CBO cost estimate, and then provides a section-by-section description of its provisions. Under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, states, territories, and tribes with a federally approved Title IV-E plan are entitled to open-ended federal support for a part of the cost of providing assistance to each eligible child in foster care, as well as eligible children who leave foster care for new permanent homes (via adoption and, at state option, kinship guardianship), including program administration and training costs on behalf of those eligible children. The federal share of Title IV-E program costs varies by type of cost, and for the cost of assistance payments, by state, but is never lower than 50% of program expenditures and may not be more than 83% in any case. Children may only be eligible for Title IV-E foster care assistance if they are removed from a low-income home of a parent or relative and are then placed in a licensed foster family home or child care institution. As part of ensuring a child's Title IV-E eligibility, states must make "reasonable efforts" to prevent a child from entering foster care. However, states are prohibited from using any Title IV-E program funds to provide services, including "counseling or treatment" intended to "ameliorate or remedy personal problems, behaviors, or home conditions." All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and seven tribes have an HHS-approved Title IV-E plan and may thus claim federal support under the Title IV-E program. Funding for the Title IV-E program is permanently authorized. For FY2016, the federal cost of the Title IV-E foster care and permanency program was expected to be $7.6 billion, including $4.8 billion for foster care and $2.8 billion for adoption and guardianship. , Under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, states, territories, and tribes with approved plans receive federal funds (distributed by formula) to provide services intended to ensure children's safety and well-being, strengthen and preserve families (including biological, adoptive, and kin families), enable children in foster care to be safely reunited with their parents, and promote and support adoption. There are no federal eligibility criteria for receipt of services under the two Title IV-B programs (Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families or PSSF). Funding is provided on both a capped mandatory and a discretionary basis. The federal share of a state's program costs is 75%—meaning a state must spend $1 in non-federal funds for every $3 in federal funds it receives. However, federal dollars available under Title IV-B are capped at no more than the state's total allotment of appropriated funds. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and four additional territories, as well as many tribes, receive Title IV-B funding. For FY2016, Congress provided $668 million under all Title IV-B funding authorities. Out of that total funding amount, $575 million was provided via formula grants to states, territories, and tribes for child and family services and $93 million was provided for other specified programs, grants, or activities, including the Court Improvement Program ($30 million); Regional Partnership Grants (to improve outcomes for children affected by parental substance abuse) ($19 million); Monthly Caseworker Visit grants ($19 million); and research, technical assistance, demonstration, and evaluation activities (including funding reserved out of the PSSF appropriation and under separate funding authorization provided in Section 426 of the Social Security Act). The Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) is authorized under Section 477 of the Social Security Act. States, territories, and tribes with approved plans receive CFCIP funds (distributed by formula) to provide services intended to help children who are expected to age out of foster care, those who aged out of foster care, and those who left foster care for adoption or guardianship at age 16 or older to make a successful transition to adulthood. Separately, formula funds are authorized for states, territories, and tribes to provide Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) for CFCIP-eligible youth. ETVs are intended to cover the cost of attending institutions of higher education (e.g., colleges, universities, and job training programs). Funding is authorized on a capped entitlement basis for CFCIP and on a discretionary basis for ETVs. The funding share of program costs is 80%—meaning a state must spend $1 in non-federal funds for every $4 in federal funds it receives. However, federal dollars available under the program (for general services and for ETVs) are capped at no more than the state's total allotment of appropriated funds. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and a small number of tribes receive CFCIP and ETV funds. In FY2016, Congress provided $183 million in federal funding for these programs, including $140 million for CFCIP and $43 million for ETVs. The Family First Prevention Services Act ( H.R. 5456 ) was introduced in the House on June 13, 2016, by Representative Vern Buchanan with Representative Sander Levin and 11 other original co-sponsors. On June 15, 2016, the House Ways and Means Committee agreed, by unanimous voice vote, to report the bill (Chairman Brady's Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute) favorably to the full House. (The chairman's amendment includes a one-time, $8 million appropriation to support competitive grants related to recruitment and retention of foster parents but was otherwise substantively the same as the introduced bill.) On June 16, 2016, Senator Hatch, with Senators Wyden, Grassley, and Bennet, introduced the Senate companion ( S. 3065 ) to the Family First Prevention Services Act, as ordered reported by the House Ways and Means Committee. On June 21, 2016, the full House considered and passed H.R. 5456 under suspension of the rules and via voice vote. Some Members who spoke on the House floor in support of passage of H.R. 5456 cited the strong support the bill received from a diverse group of stakeholders. The bill has been widely praised by a diverse group of more than 50 national, state, and local organizations and agencies, including child welfare advocacy groups and agencies representing public child welfare administrators; substance abuse treatment and prevention administrators and providers; pediatricians; social workers; biological parents, kin caregivers, and foster and adoptive parents; and courts and judges, among others. The bill would authorize new open-ended Title IV-E support for evidence-based mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services, and in-home parent skill-based programs, which would permit children to remain safely at home with their parents, or with kin. States would have the option to use Title IV-E funds (beginning with FY2020) to provide these foster care prevention activities, for up to 12 months, to any child determined at imminent risk of entering foster care, any pregnant or parenting youth in foster care, and to the parents or kin caregivers of those children. Separately, as of FY2017, the bill would newly permit states to use Title IV-E funding to support evidence-based kinship navigator programs and to provide foster care maintenance payments (for up to 12 months) on behalf of a foster child who is placed with his or her parent in a licensed family-based residential treatment facility that offers substance abuse treatment with parenting training. Unlike activities currently authorized under the Title IV-E foster care component, no income test would be applied to determine eligibility for any of these newly authorized uses of Title IV-E funding. At the same time, the bill would restrict (as of FY2020) the availability of Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments for children placed in settings other than foster family homes, when that placement is not done to meet clinical or other treatment or service needs. With limited exceptions, federal Title IV-E foster care maintenance payment support for children placed in non-foster family home settings would be available for a maximum of two weeks, unless the child was placed in a "qualified residential treatment program" and a subsequent assessment and court review found this the most appropriate placement to meet the child's needs.