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Kelly Whitener

Kelly Whitener is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families (CCF) where she focuses on pediatric health benefits and managed care delivery systems as well as promoting state level advocacy to improve care for children and families. Prior to joining CCF, Kelly served as the Director of State Coverage Programs at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, overseeing the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Basic Health Program. Kelly also worked for the Senate Committee on Finance, managing the Medicaid, CHIP, and prevention and wellness portfolio from October 2008 to April 2014. During her time with the committee, Kelly worked on the CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2009, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, and several year-end bills extending expiring safety net programs. Kelly studied psychology and Spanish at the University of Michigan and earned a Masters of Public Health from UCLA and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University.

Latest From Kelly

President Biden’s Executive Order on Public Charge

On February 2, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) on various aspects of the U.S. immigration system, including public charge policies. Readers of SayAhhh! know that the Trump Administration changed longstanding public charge policies to make it harder for lawfully residing immigrants to obtain green cards by imposing a new wealth test. Though […]

Senate Voting Rules and Budget Reconciliation Explained (Part 2)

In part 1 of this budget reconciliation refresher, I wrote about the basic rules for passing legislation in the House versus the Senate and how the budget reconciliation process allows certain legislation to move forward with approval from a simple majority of Senators rather than the usual three-fifths or 60-vote threshold. Now I’d like to […]

Senate Voting Rules and Budget Reconciliation Explained (Part 1)

In the House of Representatives, legislation passes with a simple majority of 218 of 435 votes recorded on an electronic voting system. The Senate system is, by comparison, stuck in the dark ages. In the Senate, the clerk calls the names of each Senator and records the votes on a tally sheet. Like the House, […]