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December 2004 - Vol. 6, No. 10
 Please
Note: As of July 1, 2004, we have changed our name! The Center
on Fathers, Families and Public Policy is now The Center for Family
Policy and Practice.
Latest Bush Appointments Heighten
Concern among Many Advocates
President Bush has made a number of appointments for his second
term in office that will have an impact on low-income families,
women, and persons of color. Among some of the recent appointments:
- Former Utah Governor and current U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Michael Leavitt was chosen by President Bush
to replace Tommy Thompson as Director of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services on December 13. Leavitt has served 14
months as EPA Administrator. Despite the President’s confidence
in Leavitt, the following concerns have been raised by groups
familiar with his record:
- During his tenure as Utah Governor, the state’s child
welfare system was the subject of a class action lawsuit alleging
that the system was so mismanaged that it violated the constitutional
rights of every child in custody. The lawsuit resulted in
a settlement agreement, but over subsequent years the state
resisted making the reforms necessary to comply with the agreement.
- The League of Conservation Voters describes Leavitt’s
record in Utah as “a governor actively rolling back
environmental protections while publicly projecting concern
about the environment.” The LCV charges that as governor,
Leavitt “made a deal to remove six million acres of
Utah's public lands from protection against development and
road-building and on the issue of clean water, recent EPA
studies show that Leavitt's Utah is tied for last place in
enforcing the Clean Water Act.”
- There has been a controversial push in recent years to
fund marriage promotion activities using TANF funds. Leavitt
created Utah’s Governor’s Commission on Marriage
and signed a Marriage Proclamation in 1998 that recognized
marriage as a public good. In 1999, he proclaimed National
Marriage Day and Marriage Awareness Week.
For further information, see the National Center for Youth
Law, www.youthlaw.org;
State Policies to Promote Marriage, The Lewin Group, www.lewin.com;
and the League of Conservation Voters, www.lcv.org.
- In another appointment, President Bush has named Dr. W. David
Hager to serve as Chairman of the Food & Drug Administration's
Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The Committee is
an 11-member panel that has significant influence on women’s
health policy. Dr. Hager is author of the book, As Jesus Cared
for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now. According to the
Endometriosis Research Center, the book emphasizes the "restorative
power of Jesus Christ in one’s life" and recommends
Scripture readings and prayers for headaches and premenstrual
syndrome. Dr. Hager has extremely strong ties to the Christian
Medical Association and to the anti-abortion group Focus on the
Family.
See www.endocenter.org/hager.htm.
- President Bush has also announced his appointment of Gerald
Reynolds to replace Mary Frances Berry as chairman of the U.S
Commission on Civil Rights. Ms. Berry resigned the position this
month. Mr. Reynolds’ nomination to serve as the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education
in 2002 was met with “strong opposition” by the NAACP.
Kweisi Mfume, NAACP President at the time stated then that, “Reynolds
has consistently called for the elimination of a variety of programs
that have helped racial and ethnic minorities, as well as women,
the elderly, and disabled Americans. It is inconceivable that
a person with such strong convictions should be charged with implementing
and protecting the laws for which he has shown such contempt.”
See www.naacp.org
and www.freep.com/voices/editorials.
Abstinence-Only Curricula Found to Contain Misinformation
A report prepared by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee
on Government Reform – Minority Staff at the request of Representative
Henry Waxman (D-CA) evaluates the content of the most commonly-used
curricula among federal abstinence education grantees. Abstinence
education has expanded rapidly under the Bush administration, doubling
to $170 million in fiscal year 2005. Millions of children now receive
abstinence-only education, which promotes abstinence from sexual
activity and excludes information on contraception. According to
the report, the curricula used in these programs are not reviewed
by the federal government for accuracy.
The report finds that over 80% of the abstinence-only curricula
used by over two-thirds of the grantees of the largest federal abstinence-only
initiative contain false, misleading, or distorted information about
reproductive health. Among the specific findings:
- False statements about the effectiveness of contraceptives are
presented as scientific fact in many of the abstinence-only curricula
that were studied. Curricula were found to include such misinformation
as, “the popular claim that ‘condoms help prevent
the spread of STDs,’ is not supported by the data”;
and “in heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately
31% of the time”. Another states that a pregnancy occurs
one out of every seven times that couples use condoms.
- The curricula contain false information about the risks associated
with abortion. One curriculum states that 5% to 10% of women who
have legal abortions will become sterile; that “premature
birth, a major cause of mental retardation, is increased following
the abortion of a first pregnancy”; and that “tubal
and cervical pregnancies are increased following abortions.”
In fact, these risks do not rise after the procedure used in most
abortions in the United States.
- The curricula present religious beliefs and gender stereotypes
as scientific fact. Many of the curricula stated that life begins
at conception. One curriculum calls a 43-day-old fetus a “thinking
person.” Women are presented as needing financial support
while men need admiration in one curriculum. Another instructs
that women gauge their happiness and success on their relationships
but that men’s happiness hinges on their accomplishments.
- Scientific errors, such as listing exposure to sweat and tears
as a risk factor for HIV transmission, were found in numerous
instances.
The report, The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only
Programs is available at www.democrats.reform.house.gov.
Sixth Annual TANF Report on Child Support Collections
Available
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration
for Children and Families has prepared its sixth annual report to
Congress on the TANF program. Child support collections are included
as a part of the reporting. The Child Support Collections report
includes the following information:
- Nearly 49% of the 16 million child support cases in the caseload
nationally had a child support collection, up from 38% in 1999.
- Total administrative expenditures were $5.2 billion, a 28%
increase from 1999.
- Of the total fiscal year 2002 families in the child support
caseload, 36.6% have never received public assistance. These families
received 50.4% of the total distributed child support collections.
Almost 46% of families in the caseload are former public assistance
recipients, and these families received 41.2% of collections.
Families currently receiving public assistance represented 17.5%
of the caseload, and 8.4% of collections. The "current assistance"
caseload has declined 15% since fiscal year 2000.
The report, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF):
Sixth Annual Report to Congress, is available at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/annualreport6.
Please Note: The next Policy Briefing
will be available in February 2005.
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