{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://lawler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5114", "Lawler, Bynum Lead Bipartisan Effort to Update Homelessness Definition for Kids and Teens", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NY", "Michael Lawler", "L000599", "lawler.house.gov", "lawler", "https://lawler.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 12/4/25\u2026 Yesterday, Reps. Mike Lawler (NY-17) and Janelle Bynum (OR-05), introduced the Homeless Children and Youth Act, legislation to align federal agencies\u2019 approach to identifying and meeting the needs of homeless children and youth.\n\nEnacted in 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act is the most significant federal law addressing the critical problem of homelessness. While the law was designed to establish various federal agencies\u2019 responses to homelessness and best use of limited taxpayer resources, there is a significant misalignment in how the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines \u201chomeless\u201d compared to other federal agencies serving children.\n\n\u201cSchools identify about 1.4 million children and youth as homeless, yet most can\u2019t access HUD resources because they don\u2019t fit its narrow definition. Ignoring these hidden but serious cases strains families and local communities, which sets many kids on a path toward adult homelessness. Updating the definition is a necessary step to break that cycle and ease economic strain on our local communities,\u201d said Congressman Lawler.\n\n\u201cOregon has one of the highest rates of youth and teen homelessness in the country, and too many of these children are unable to access support they need because of red tape. We know that teen homelessness is the strongest predictor of homelessness as an adult, and that expanding access to support can be life-changing for these kids. That\u2019s why I\u2019m proud to be leading this bill to cut through the red tape and offer young Oregonians \u2013 and Americans \u2013 a pathway out of homelessness,\u201d said Congresswoman Bynum.\n\nFull text of the bill can be found HERE.\n\nCongressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress and represents New York's 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties. He was rated the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 118th Congress, 8th overall, surpassing dozens of committee chairs.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://lawler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5114"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0487239342182875, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}