Snapshot · The Shawn Ryan Show
A 2025 study found that of the $9.6 billion Title IV-E foster care fund, only 2 cents of every dollar actually went toward prevention after the 2018 Family First Act.
Where this was said
At 2:11:50 · chapter starts 2:11:10
The episode pivots from doom to practical guidance. Lilley describes the Fostering the Futures Act — a bipartisan bill associated with Melania Trump — which lowered Chafee Program eligibility from 16 to 14 and extended aging-out age from 18 to 21, creating new education stipends, housing assistance, and business internship incentives for foster youth. She expresses cautious enthusiasm while warning against Congress using it as a reason to 'check the box' and move on. She then gives a detailed walkthrough of the licensing process: contact your local DCFS/HHS/CPS office, take a free orientation, complete CPR certification, take parenting classes and a water safety course, and pass a home study. She highlights private agencies like Childhelp as an alternative licensing route with more support. She explains respite care as the ideal low-commitment entry point — a fully licensed short-term placement option that lets would-be foster parents test the waters while providing critical relief to burned-out foster families.
The national average social worker turnover rate in child welfare is 36% within 18 months; in Florida it reaches 57%.
Five children die in the United States every single day due to child abuse and neglect.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
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