WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) delivered the following statement at a Work & Welfare Subcommittee hearing on the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program.

As prepared for delivery.

Thank you Chairman LaHood and Ranking Member Davis for holding today’s hearing.

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program provides critical, evidence-based services to parents and kids to improve their health and well-being.

As important as the services offered is the manner in which MIECHV delivers them. By meeting families where they live, where they are raising their kids, it can ensure a more successful, more accountable program and one that can reach more people in need.

MIECHV has a long history of strong bipartisan support – including the 2022 reauthorization of the program that was named in honor of our late colleague Jackie Walorski. Jackie was a truly compassionate and tireless advocate on behalf of our most vulnerable families. Her tremendous leadership ensured we made improvements to the MIECHV program that have had a clear and sizable impact. The reforms that were made to make our state partners more engaged in the success of the program and more accountable has led to an increase in the number of families served – including a 20 percent increase in those living in rural communities. Again, this is about reaching folks where they live and where they most need our help.

I also want to thank our colleagues, Representatives Yakym and Davis, who have led the charge to further incorporate the MIECHV program into the historic effort this committee has embarked on to enact reforms to our foster youth program. Policies they have championed were included in the Fostering the Future Act that was recently approved by the House with unanimous support alongside the leadership of First Lady Melania Trump. They will help connect expectant and parenting foster youth with the maternal and early childhood services provided by MIECHV. Representative Yakym is building directly upon the great work of his predecessor, Representative Walorski, leveraging existing programs and resources to help young adults aging out of foster care build healthier, more stable families of their own.

As my colleagues know, time is of the essence here. This program is only authorized through fiscal year 2027, and should Congress fail to reauthorize it, these services do not just continue on autopilot or at current funding levels – they stop. Families who need our help will lose access to support that has a track record of success in improving lives.

I’m hopeful, given the bipartisan nature of this program, that we can act to make meaningful reforms and reauthorize MIECHV in a timely manner.

To that end, I want to thank the witnesses here today for appearing before this committee to offer testimony on how we can and must reauthorize MIECHV to ensure future generations of parents and children have access to these services.

Strong families make strong communities. This is about helping that individual mom and that young child have a more positive environment in which to live and grow. But it is also about helping our communities – including our rural, underserved, and hard to reach communities – see the benefits of a healthier, more thriving citizenry.

Thank you again Chairman LaHood and Ranking Member Davis.