(4-21-17) The White House announced late tonight that it had chosen Dr. Ellie McCance-Katz, as the first Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse inside the Department of Health and Human Services ending months of speculation about who would be selected. The announcement came after much speculation that Dr. Michael Welner , a forensic psychiatrist, would be chosen. As early as yesterday, some of my sources in the Senate were saying that Welner had a “lock” on the job. He had...

This story in today’s Wall Street Journal by Michelle Hackman supports what I reported in a blog last month about efforts by Republican Pennsylvania Representative Tim Murph y to get Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and the White House to appoint Dr. Michael Welner as the first Assistant Secretary for mental health. Whether this appointment will really happen, however, is still anyone’s guess given the oftentimes erratic temperament of the White House. To read the entire article...

Habitat for Humanity , the largest nonprofit homebuilder in the world, was already planning its first-ever nationwide campaign to raise money for affordable housing before the budget proposal was released. But after the 2018 proposal–which would cut $6.2 billion (a 13.2% reduction) from the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as numerous local improvement and anti-poverty programs–was released, it lent an extra layer of urgency to the Home is the Key initiative, which...