Advantages and Disadvantages of legislative action

Advantages and Disadvantages. you will imagine you are employed as a human services professional in your desired area of interest. You have been asked to prepare a brief policy paper analyzing a particular piece of human services legislation and to make policy recommendations for better meeting the needs of your client base.

Strengths and Weakness

Using a specific piece of state or federal legislation that you have identified and researched in this course, you will assess the strengths and/or weaknesses of the legislation in addressing the needs of clients, bearing in mind the cultural, social, political, historical, and economic context in which the legislation was proposed. You should also consider how other similar legislation currently before state or federal legislative bodies might impact the legislation, and any legal or ethical concerns.

Analysis and Explanation

Based on your analysis, your paper should explain your organization’s position on the legislation being considered, propose areas for improvement, and recommend strategies for building coalitions to support your position. Your analysis and recommendations should take into account the various interest groups or stakeholders that may influence the legislation being considered, including the roles of media, lobbying groups, community groups, beneficiaries, and concerned individuals and how political, social, or economic concerns may affect implementation.

Background

In this brief introductory section, you will put the legislation under consideration in context, as a preface to explaining your organization’s position. Specifically, you should use the background analysis you have completed earlier in the course to: a. Briefly examine how major social, political, and economic events and other legislation have set the stage for the specific legislation you are considering. Be sure to provide specific examples in your response.

b. Briefly analyze the effectiveness of previous and existing human services legislation on the selected topic. Do the policies or programs effectively address the needs of the intended beneficiaries? Why or why not? Provide evidence to support your answer.

c. Succinctly examine whether previous and existing policies address the human services challenge in ways that are sensitive to meeting the needs of a diverse clientele and explain why or why not. Provide evidence to support your answer.

d. Argue for why is it particularly urgent to address the social issue in the legislation and any related policy weaknesses now. Your reasons should use audience-specific language and be supported by evidence. Keep in mind that policymakers, lobbyists, and private sector leaders have multiple competing priorities, respond to pressures from different groups, and have limited time. Your arguments will be critical to getting and keeping their support.