Update on the President's proposal for evidence-based home visiting

As part of his agendas on poverty, supporting families, and early education, President Obama called early in his administration for the creation of a program of prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses for first-time, low-income families, citing evidence from multiple randomized controlled trials of the Nurse-Family Partnership, which have found impacts on maternal and child health with far-reaching implications for public health. In his final budget submitted to Congress in May, 2009, that proposal was transformed into a program of evidence-based home-visiting, with two tiers of funding – one for programs that meet the top tier of evidence, and a second for promising programs, with the understanding that promising programs would be tested in rigorously conducted trials. Research dollars were to be allocated to both top tier and promising programs so they might be improved over time. According to OMB Director, Peter Orszag, this approach reflects the President's call for government that is smarter. This talk will provide an update on the status of this legislation and its implications for evidence-based policy making.