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On December 17, 2019, the President signed into law two spending packages that cover all twelve annual appropriations bills, funding hundreds of federal agencies, bureaus and initiatives totaling $1.4 trillion for Fiscal Year 2020. Together, the packages include important investment decisions for our kids and several policy provisions benefitting children and avoids a disastrous shutdown like the one in early 2019. The two-bill package (H.R.1158 and H.R.1865) includes a $22 billion increase in defense discretionary spending as well as approximately $25 billion in additional funding for non-defense discretionary programs. The top-line spending numbers for the package adhere to...

In December of 2017, Congress passed and President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Proponents of the TCJA point to a provision in the law that doubled the child tax credit (CTC) from $1,000 per child under 17 to $2,000 as a big win for American families. Senior Advisor to the President, Ivanka Trump, made this claim on Sunday. 39.4 MILLION American families will benefit from the Child Tax Credit for tax year 2019 receiving an average of over $2,200 and a total of $88.1 Billion! We are fighting each...

First Focus on Children’s 13th annual Children’s Budget publication offers a comprehensive analysis of how kids and families have been faring in the federal budget over the past five years. The data tells an alarming story. As the children’s share of the federal budget continues to shrink, our analysis found that the share of spending on children has declined to an all-time low of 7.21 percent. The share of spending on children would have dropped even further to just 6.45 percent under the Trump Administration’s proposed FY 2020 budget. In addition, spending on children is not keeping up...

The child poverty rate in the U.S. remains extremely high: nearly 1 in 5 children in the U.S. are living below the poverty line and children are 69 percent more likely to be living in poverty than adults. Yet among the many pressing social issues facing our country, child poverty often gets overlooked.That is why it is notable that in California, state legislators, advocates, and researchers have come together to prioritize reducing the number of children and families experiencing poverty in California.In early March, Assembly Bill 1520, the Lifting Children and Families out...

Wednesday the House Ways and Means Committee marked up and passed the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016. The bill marks a major step in federal child welfare finance reform in allowing Title IV-E funds, the largest federal child welfare program, to be used to provide services and supports to families who are at risk of entering the child welfare system. It also incentivizes states to place foster children in family-based settings instead of group homes whenever possible.Currently, there are 415,000 children in the foster care system, a number that has grown recently, in part, due to...

With the newly marked-up Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 (H.R. 5003) recently moving through the House Education and the Workforce Committee on a strictly partisan vote, it is time to confront the ill-advised provisions that make Representative Todd Rokita’s (R-IN) bill deeply troubling in nature. The bill threatens to increase food insecurity for already needy children under the guise of an improved and more efficient system. In order to truly provide children with the proper meals and nutrition that are essential during their most formative years, we need to expand access to healthy meals throughout the year rather than...

Breaking News!Access to high-quality preschool for all 4-year-olds in low-income families is being considerered as an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding bill. Take action now »Dear Friend,Decades of research proves that children who attend high-quality preschool are less likely to be held back in school, require remedial education, engage in criminal activity, or become dependent on public assistance later in life. And they are more likely to graduate from high school and earn more as adults. Despite these benefits, millions of children from low-income families lack access to high-quality preschool.We are excited to...

While both the House and Senate continue work on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, the primary federal education legislation), Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL), Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced a bill that would have a major positive impact on children’s education, but it falls outside the jurisdiction of the education committees and does nothing to amend ESEA.The Child Poverty Reduction Act of 2015 (H.R. 2408), introduced on May 19, 2015, would establish a national goal of cutting child poverty in...

Jill and her 8-month-old daughter know all too well that the popular new detergent packs can mean danger for young children. Last April, in the split second it took for Jill to check on her older child, Cate pulled herself up on a laundry basket headed to the laundry room, grabbed the single detergent packet on top, and popped it into her mouth.Then gagging, crying, screaming, vomiting, wheezing. Cate was rushed to the emergency room.Cate is one of over 11,500 children age 5 and younger who were exposed to concentrated laundry detergent...

The U.S. Senate is considering a policy that would help America's homeless children and youth. Introduced by Senator Portman (R-Ohio), the bipartisan amendment is being debated on the floor today. Your senators are deciding how to vote, and a quick call or email from you can make a big difference.The United States has over 1.3 million homeless students. 81 percent are ignored by the government department in charge of housing. That’s right, a majority of our homeless students aren’t counted in the definition of “homeless” used by the U.S. Department of Housing and...