Wednesday's adventures in Washington DC

I started my day today by attending a Congressional Briefing titled Children in the Federal Budget which was sponsored by First Focus. At the briefing they released the newest edition of their comprehensive guide to all federal spending on children. The guide includes information for past years as well all the way back to fiscal year 2005 to the present proposal by President Obama for fiscal year 2010. If you would like to check out their data you can find it by going to www.childrensbudget.org. The report for the most part includes spending for children birth to 18. It is very interesting. Congressman Danny Davis was in attendance and spoke about the bill that he plans to re-introduce later this week that will require the President to submit a children's budget to help direct greater attention ton the needs of our youngest citizens. The "Children's budget Act" would require a detailed account of all the federal funding for children and children's programs, including a detailed breakdown of spending by agency.

I then attended a the Children's Leadership Council meeting in the National Association of Education for Young Children's building. This is the second time I have been in their building and I love visiting it! They have statues of children in fun poises right outside their front door. The Children's Leadership Council is VERY exciting! It is a group of over 50 children's organizations that have come together with the purpose of having the early childhood community speak with one voice to the powers that be in the Federal Government. Today they were talking about a meeting that they have coming up in October where they will be meeting with an individual from the Presidents office. This is exciting because for many years the legislatures and senators have been saying that the early childhood community needed to come together and decide what they wanted. The Children's Leadership Council is helping these agency develop a consistent message that all of the agencies can share when they visit the hill.

Next I attended a CLASP meeting that was held in the office of the National Women's Law Center. CLASP's mission is to develop and advocate for policies at the federal, state and local levels that improve the lives of low income people. In particular, we seek policies that work to strengthen families and create pathways to education and work. Today they were talking about possible options for increased funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant. The Child Care and Development Block Grant is the money that is used for multiple programs in Indiana. It is the money for Voucher dollars, Paths to QUALITY and many training opportunities for Child Care Providers among other things.

The meetings that I attended today were also attended by agencies such as Zero to Three, NAEYC and Head Start. It was exciting to see the national organizations all work together. It makes me feel good to know that these wonderful individuals are in Washington DC working for polices that support children and families.

Tomorrow is my last day of work before returning home on Friday. I hope that you have enjoyed hearing about my adventures. I will post again tomorrow.

Have a great night!
Mindy

Long and productive day on the Hill

What a busy day on Capitol Hill today. I started with a tour of the Capitol building. Wow, what a beautiful place! Did you know that each state gets to send two statues to be on display in the Capitol Building? Indiana has Oliver Hazard Perry Morton and Lewis Wallace. My favorite statue was Ronald Reagan from California. He really stood out amongst all of the older statue designs. What was great about it is they actually used pieces of the Berlin Wall in the base of the statue. What an experience!

I was lucky enough to have gotten Gallery passes from Representative Burton's office yesterday. With these passes I was able to visit both the House and the Senate Floor. With the Gallery passes they let you go into the balcony while congress is in session. It is really cool to see it all in action! If you ever visit Washington DC make sure to get Gallery passes from your Congressperson's office. All you have to do is walk into their office and ask for them. You do have to go through a great deal of security to get in but it is worth it.

I then visited Representative Carson's office. I met with his staff person Amirah Salaam. She was very nice and interested in the field of early childhood. She asked me to send her further information on some of NACCRRA's agenda. It is always a good sign when they ask for more information to be sent to them. I shared with her about a scandal that is occurring in the Wisconsin's CCDF voucher system. Among other things they have discovered that they have been paying voucher dollars to at least 4 child care sites that have registered sex offenders living at them. They have also discovered that the program has been paying almost 500 child care providers who have a criminal history. I shared this information with Representative Carson's office in hope that they may be able to use it to get Representatives from Wisconsin to co-sponsor his recent bill to require all licensed child care providers and any provider who receives CCDF vouchers to have comprehensive background checks.

By the time I got back to NACCRRA's office Amirah had already emailed me about an event that is occurring tomorrow on the Hill that she thought that I might like to attend. So.... Tomorrow I will be attending the Congressional briefing on Children in the Federal Budget being sponsored by First Focus. I will let you know how it goes. Have a good night everyone, I am off to attend the Parent Webinar that is being sponsored by NACCRRA tonight. This isn't the first NACCRRA webinar I have participated in but it is the first one I have attended in person.

By the way... did you know that the Cannon House Office Building has a beauty shop in it? I found that to be very interesting.

Hand Sanitizer Danger

With flu season upon us, I wanted to take a moment to remind you of the dangers associated with alcohol based hand sanitizers. One of our staff members got an email from her mother today and we wanted to find out if these horror stories were in fact true. According to snopes.com they are. Although the specific anecdotes in the email were not verified, snopes reports that there are documented cases of alcohol poisoning and intoxication associated with hand sanitizer. Remember that this is a form of alcohol (ethyl alchol) that causes intoxication, not isopropyl alcohol commonly used for sanitizing injection areas.

Snopes goes on to say that ingesting as little as an ounce or two could be fatal to a toddler. So please remember to keep these products out of the reach of the little ones this fall and winter, and if you allow them to use it, do not let them ingest any and keep an eye on them until they have rubbed it in and the alcohol has evaportated.

Voluntary Tylenol Recall

You may have heard that McNeil Consumer Healthcare (the makers of TYLENOL®) is voluntarily recalling certain lots of Children's and Infants' TYLENOL® liquid products that were manufactured between April, 2008 and June, 2008. All products manufactured met internal specifications. However, the company is implementing this recall because during this period, an unused portion of one inactive ingredient did not meet all quality standards. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, it was decided to recall all Children's and Infants' TYLENOL® liquid products listed below, which were made during this time.

Parents and caregivers who have questions or concerns should contact their child's health care provider or our consumer call center at 1-800-962-5357 (available Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time). Consumers can find the lot numbers on the bottom of the box containing the liquid product and also on the sticker that surrounds the product bottle. The lot numbers of the affected products are listed below.

These actions do not apply to Children's TYLENOL® Meltaways and Junior Strength TYLENOL® Meltaways. The voluntary recall applies only to select lots of Children's and Infants' TYLENOL® liquid products.

Recalled Products - Full List

Lot #
Product Description

SBM041, SBM067, SCM037, SDM027, SEM109
Children's Tylenol Plus Cold MS Suspension 4 oz. Grape

SBM042, SCM015, SCM036, SDM034
Children's Tylenol Suspension 4oz. Grape

SBM043, SBM044, SCM029
Children's Tylenol Suspension 4oz. Bubble Gum

SBM045, SCM011, SCM030, SDM035
Children's Tylenol Suspension 4oz. Strawberry

SBM064, SCM033, SDM020
Infant’s Tylenol Grape Suspension Drops 1/4oz.

SBM065, SCM005, SCM006, SDM032
Infant's Tylenol Suspension 1/2oz. Cherry

SBM066, SCM068
Children's Dye Free Suspension 4oz. Cherry

SBM068, SCM035, SCM070, SCM080, SDM005
Children's Tylenol Suspension 4oz. Cherry

SBM069, SBM070, SCM081, SDM006
Children's Tylenol Plus Cough & Runny Nose 4oz. Cherry

SCM012, SCM067, SDM007, SDM068
Infant's Tylenol Suspension Drops 1/2oz. Grape

SCM013, SCM014, SCM069
Children's Tylenol Plus Flu 4oz. Bubble Gum

SCM016, SFM024
Children's Tylenol Plus Cold Suspension 4oz. Grape

SCM017
Children's Tylenol Plus Cough/ST Suspension 4oz. Cherry

SCM082, SDM039, SDM040
Infant's Tylenol Suspension Drops 1oz. Grape

SCM083, SCM084, SDM008
Infant's Tylenol Dye Free Suspension 1oz. Cherry

SDM064
Children’s Tylenol Pediatric Suspension 1oz. Cherry

SDM038, SDM009
Infant's Tylenol Suspension Drops 1oz. Cherry

SDM033
Children's Tylenol Plus Cold/Allergy 4oz. Bubble Gum

SDM078
Infant's Tylenol Drops 1oz. Grape

SCM034
Infant’s Tylenol Grape Suspension Drops H/G 1/2oz.

SDM028
Children's Tylenol Suspension 4oz. Cherry, Hospital Govt.


Consumers with questions should call (800) 962-5357.

Visit to Dan Burton's office (Indiana's 5th district)

I visited Dan Burton's office yesterday. He was not in town because there were no votes for the day but I was able to visit with his Legislative Assistant Mary Valentino. This was at least the third time I have visited with her and I was encouraged to realize that she remembered my last visit and what I had talked about with her. My first trip to his office was about 6 years ago and what I remember about that trip was that I got the feeling that the staff person was not at all interested in my visit. I can't say that about Mary. She was interested in what I had to say. She didn't seem as if she agreed with all of it but at least she was interested and seemed to understand what I had to say. The piece that she found to be most interesting was the chart that shows the different regulations for the different types of child care in Indiana. You can find that char here http://www.childcareanswers.com/facilityregulations.html. This was the first time I had taken that document with me and I am glad that I did. I am hopeful that Representative Burton will consider becoming a co-sponsor for the new bill that Representative Carson has put forth to require Comprehensive back ground checks for all child care providers who accept the CCDF vouchers dollars.

Want to find out about a bill

I want to share this website with you. http://www.thomas.gov It is a wonderfully helpful site that helps you find out all the information you could want to know on proposed bills. Want to find out how your congressman has voted on a particular bill or what bills they have introduced or cosponsored? This is the site for you.

Mindy's first time at a congressional hearing

On September 24th I attended a hearing on "The Future of Newspapers: The Impact on the Economy and Democracy. It was a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee that is Chaired by Congresswoman Carolyn Malony, a democrat from New York's 14 district. In attendance was 3 other congressmen. Four individuals testified on the issue.

The Internet has had a large impact on the newspaper industry. There print readership has gone down as individuals have begun to read the paper on the Internet. They are also having problems because their largest source of revenue, advertising, has gone down in favor of advertising on the Internet.

What I found to be very interesting is that the bill that Congresswoman Malony had just introduced was not really what the newspaper industry wanted. Her bill proposes to make it possible for newspapers to become non-profit industries. The Newspaper industry is concerned about that because they do not want their papers to be censored by the federal government. They want to continue to have freedom of the press.

If you are ever in Washington D.C. you should try to attend a hearing. The one that I attended lasted about 2 hours because it was interrupted when the congressman had to go and vote. Most hearings are open to the public. You just walk in and find a seat. You will see many congressman's staff members but not always the congressman themselves. The staffers job is to take notes for their boss and to fill them in later. The hearing that I attended had the chairwoman and one other congressman in the hearing the whole time. One congressman kept coming and going and one came in towards the end. I hear that their schedules are so packed that they are not always able to stay long.

Imagine & Explore Kids Day 2009

Saturday, October 3rd 10am - 4pm

North End of the Downtown Canal at 11th Street

Free Event

• A sports area, including the Indians, Colts, Pacers and Ice


• 
  
  Indianapolis Symphony Petting Zoo


• 
  
  The Imagination Station, where kids can win Imagination Movers prizes, including tickets to their upcoming concert in Indy


• 
  
  The UL Safety Game Show


• 
  
  The Children's Museum Haunted House friendly Ghosts and Goblins


• 
  
  Free Kid IDs


• 
  
  Arni's Restaurants kids activities area


• 
  
  Bouncertown will have inflatable bounce houses


• 
  
  Indymomslikeme.com activity area


• 
  
  Performances throughout the day by the Indianapolis Children's Choir, and the Radio Disney Road Crew, on the 5th 3rd Bank Entertainment Stage