HHS Plan to Restructure Children’s Programs Draws Fire

A plan to restructure children’s programs in the Department of Health and Human Services is drawing fire from advocacy groups and members of Congress.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt unveiled the plan last month in a letter to Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. The secretary’s plan includes folding the Child Care Bureau, which administers the federal child-care block grant for low-income families, into the office of family assistance, which oversees the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families welfare program.

In his Feb. 22 letter, Mr. Leavitt wrote that consolidating the two offices would “improve communication with internal and external customers and better provide technical assistance relative to the state block grant programs administered...