After the Brownback administration rejected a $31.5 million federal grant meant to help implement the new health care law in August, it turned around and sought a $6.6 million federal grant to promote marriage. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently rejected the latter grant, which would have underwritten marriage licenses and voluntary counseling sessions, provided by secular or faith-based agencies, for unwed parents. Even so, Kansas Secretary of Social and Rehabilitation Services Rob Siedlecki has his staff looking at how the plan might be implemented with state resources. “Certainly if we finance it through SRS, we won’t be able to offer it to as many individuals as we would have otherwise,” SRS spokeswoman Angela de Rocha told the Kansas City Star. But with SRS currently trying to cut $43 million from its budget, trimming programs that profoundly affect the state’s most vulnerable citizens, is there really money to spare for marriage promotion?
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