Head Start Improvement Act of 2014
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Head Start Improvement Act of 2014 - Amends the Head Start Act to eliminate, beginning on the first fiscal year following this Act's enactment, the formula for allotting Head Start program funds to Head Start agencies.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to allot block grants for prekindergarten programs to states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, the Republic of Palau, and each federally recognized Indian tribe on the basis of each jurisdiction's share of children aged five and younger who are from families with incomes below 130% of the poverty level.
Requires the Governor or other chief executive of each grantee to certify that all grant funds will be used to directly or indirectly provide comprehensive education and related services to low-income children and their families.
Requires grantees to: (1) award subgrants to prekindergarten providers of their choosing, (2) establish rules and standards for those subgrantees to follow, and (3) monitor compliance with those rules and standards.
Gives grantees full flexibility to use the grant funds to finance a prekindergarten education provider, service, or program, including to establish a portable voucher system.
Requires grantees to provide matching funds from nonfederal sources equal to 20% of their grant.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on March 12, 2014. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 12, 2014: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced it on March 12, 2014. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 12, 2014, 4565 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4565 days ago, on March 12, 2014.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers