The head of an Arkansas-based nonprofit group traveled to Capitol Hill this week to ask lawmakers to support the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program.
Without congressional action, the initiative stands to lose a key source of financial assistance.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation Tuesday to reauthorize funding, which focuses on improving maternal and child health, preventing child abuse, and promoting early childhood education.
Staci Croom-Raley, executive director of Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, met Tuesday with U.S. Sen. John Boozman and urged him to support Grassley's bill.
On Wednesday, the Republican from Rogers signed on as a co-sponsor.
"We had a great meeting," Croom-Raley said. "He's always been a big supporter of home visiting and HIPPY and he continues to be."
Boozman backs the legislation and wants these types of early childhood development initiatives to continue, his spokesman, Patrick Creamer, said.
The programs provide "tools that families need to help children get the best outcome possible," he said.
HIPPY USA has its headquarters in Little Rock. It relies on the federal program for about 20 percent of its funding, supporters say.
Federal fiscal 2017 ends Sept. 30, and supporters want to be sure the funding continues in fiscal 2018.
"We need all the help we can get. That Sept. 30 deadline is coming quickly," Croom-Raley said.
"What we don't want to happen is for the families, the children, our workforce to feel uncertain about what the future will be," she said.
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, helped bring HIPPY to Arkansas in 1986 when she was the state's first lady.
HIPPY enables educators and health care professionals to provide services to roughly 6,000 households in Arkansas and 15,000 nationwide.
The federal aid enables 140,000 households nationwide to receive these types of services, the legislation's supporters say.
Metro on 09/23/2017