Letters and Correspondence

The bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act of 2017, led by Congressman Steve Stivers, would remove barriers that communities face in addressing family, child and youth homelessness and give them the flexibility to tailor homeless assistance interventions based on the unique needs of their homeless population. Communities would have the discretion to target services based on local assessment of need, and serve the most vulnerable homeless children, youth and families, despite what form of homelessness they are experiencing.View our letter.

On behalf of First Focus Campaign for Children, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families the priority in federal budget and policy decisions we write to ask that you consider the following proposals to put an end to the inhumane practice of separating children from their families at the U.S. border (H.R. 5414, H.R. 5950, H.R. 2043, H.R. 2573). It is imperative that Congress and the administration do not use the torture of children and families for deterrence tactics or immigration enforcement.In May, the Trump administration issued a zero-tolerance policy for families crossing the...

First Focus Campaign for Children, in collaboration with the Children’s Leadership Council, sent a sign-on letter from 68 children’s advocacy organizations to the House of Representatives urging them to vote NO on the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R.2, the House Farm Bill) because the bill threatens access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for hundreds of thousands of families with children.View the letter.

We are writing to express our support for adequate funding for the U. S. Census Bureau in Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019 to provide for the fair, equitable and successful implementation of the decennial census so that young people do not go undercounted.  As you know, the U.S. Constitution requires an accurate count of the nation’s population every ten years, yet unfortunately, the 2020 Census remains underfunded.  We urge you to fund the U.S. Census Bureau at the level of at least $1.848 billion for FY’18 and at least $4.735 billion in FY’19.View the full letter.

First Focus Campaign for Children and its partners sent this letter to Congressional leaders on February 7, 2018.

See here for a downloadable version.January 21, 2018Dear Senate Leadership:On behalf of First Focus, a non-partisan advocacy group in support of improving the lives of children through improved federal and state policy, I am writing to urge you to make the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) permanent or to, at the very least, extend the program for 10 years.According to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) dated January 11, 2018, an extension of funding for CHIP for 10 years using the provisions in S. 1827, the “Keep Kids’ Insurance Dependable...

As of today, full funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired 104 days ago and the health coverage for nine million children has relied on a series of short-term patches from Congress to protect children from losing coverage. However, states are rapidly closing in on that moment where they are completely out of both federal and state CHIP dollars, which has forced some states to already send out disenrollment notices to families, spend time and money on planning for the possible closure of the program, and work on possible systems changes...

CHIP funding expired almost three months ago on September 30, 2017 and families across the country are receiving disenrollment notices. No family should feel the fear and worry of whether or not their child will have health care coverage.  It’s critical that Congress pass an immediate CHIP funding extension for the 8.9 million children dependent upon this bipartisan success. Congress last extended CHIP as part of the Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), legislation that passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. The most recent stop-gap measure passed in Congress to fund some...

On behalf of First Focus Campaign for Children, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization dedicated to making children and family the priority in federal budget and policy decisions, I am writing to urge you to prioritize children and working families as you lead the conference of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1.) Both the House and Senate tax bills would require drastic cuts to important programs serving children and families in response to the projected deficit increase. Even the most optimistic economic growth analysis of H.R. 1 estimates that it will increase the deficit by about $1...

The First Focus Campaign for Children submitted this statement for the record for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on November 30, 2017. The statement makes policy recommendations to make sure that the impact on children living in families battling opioid and substance use issues is considered when determining policy solutions to address this epidemic.