Senate Republicans Defund Child Protection Workers
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3266
CONCORD – Today, Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee voted against funding for 22 child protective service workers within the Division for Children, Youth and Families. These positions had previously been left unfunded in both the Governor’s and Republican controlled House budget proposals, but were a critical part of the child welfare reforms in the last biennial budget.
After the vote, Senator Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua) and Senator Becky Whitley (D-Hopkinton) issued the following statement:
“As we all emerge from a year of isolation, a year where children in need of help were cut off from the social and emotional support from life outside of the home, we should be doing everything we can to keep our children safe, happy, and healthy. Child protective service workers play a crucial part in the safety and wellbeing of our children, and we are extremely disappointed that our Republican colleagues chose to ignore the importance of this role. The inclusion of additional child protective services workers was a key part of a bipartisan effort in 2019, led by Senate Democrats, to finally address the child protection crisis in New Hampshire. Today, Senate Republicans went back on their promise to protect New Hampshire’s children."
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