Becky Shipp

Last week, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced legislation that would allow scores of state and county child welfare agencies to delay implementing a new federal law that promises to reshape foster care.

In April, members of Los Angeles County’s powerful Board of Supervisors hosted a lobbying event on the House side of Capitol Hill. During an hour-long panel discussion with likely Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps.

On February 9, President Donald Trump signed into law the most significant reform to foster care since the federal government got into that business. This fundamental re-ordering of the government’s role in child welfare extends far beyond the 437,000 children living in foster care today.

In mid-April, former Senate Finance staffer-turned-lobbyist Becky Shipp sent an e-blast to dozens of key child welfare insiders inviting them to an intimate conversation focused on health care and child welfare policy.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was furious and heartbroken. Nearly three years into an effort to fundamentally overhaul the nation’s foster care system, the bill Wyden had crafted alongside Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was dying.

Becky Shipp, a veteran policy advisor for the Senate Finance Committee, has been named vice president of The Sheridan Group, a D.C.-based consulting firm that specializes in helping to create advocacy campaigns.

Last week, several prominent California child welfare experts expressed grave concerns about the Family First Prevention Services Act, ­pending federal legislation that would dramatically change how foster care is paid for.

The field of child welfare is brimming with policy proposals and legislation that could dramatically change the way the federal government invests in foster care and families on the brink. What’s more, some appear to have bipartisan support or the potential for it.