Mike Enzi

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), who last month was appointed to help lead Congress’ largest child welfare coalition, successfully introduced a controversial amendment yesterday that would enable faith-based providers to choose what families to serve based on religious beliefs.

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.

When the goal of providing social services is helping children and their families, accountability for results seems like a very good idea. Let’s take a look at the results so far in the recent efforts in Congress to pass the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFA) approved by the House in July, but now pending in the Senate.

On Friday, one of Congress’ top child welfare advocates came to Los Angeles to pitch an all-but-dead federal bill that would change how foster care is financed. During a town hall in the cavernous City of Refuge Church in Gardena, Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.)

Two Republican senators on July 30 introduced a bill that would allow faith-based child welfare providers the freedom to discriminate against foster parents based on religious beliefs. The Child Welfare Provider Act 2014 co-sponsored by Sen.