The U.S. House of Representatives is considering budget reconciliation legislation that would decrease federally funded foster care services by $577 million over five years and $1.3 billion over ten years. The budget legislation is expected to go to the House floor on Thursday, November 10, 2005. The provisions in the House budget bill would discourage states from placing abused and neglected children with grandparents and other relatives, impede state efforts to reunify children with their parents, and make it more difficult to provide critical services to children and families. The House budget provisions would, among other things: (1) Eliminate federally funded foster care assistance for at least 4,000 children who live in low-income homes with their grandparents or other relatives; (2) Place time limitations on federal matching funds for costs to serve children in safe but unlicensed relative placements, and other limitations on child placement and administrative funds. Many thousands of foster children will be hurt by the proposed cuts, with children of color being disproportionately affected. Together, the foster care provisions in the House budget legislation would cut foster care funding to states by nearly $577 million over five years and $1.3 billion over ten years. Most of this money will come from reducing support to relatives who care for abused children who would otherwise end up in unrelated foster homes. States will be left scrambling to find money in their budgets to support relative placements, often the best home for children. Without funding for relative placements, children are more likely to be unnecessarily placed with strangers, reducing their chances of long-term stability and positive child outcomes.