News

Earlier this year, Congress passed–and the President signed–a law authorizing funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for an additional 10 years. In passing the 10-year extension of CHIP, Congress acted on a bipartisan basis to provide stability for the program that families, states, and providers need. More recently, when the Trump administration proposed a rescission package of $15 billion to Congress, $7 billion or nearly half of the entire package came from just the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Today, that plan was rejected in a 48-50 vote in the Senate.The following statement comes from Bruce Lesley, President...

In May, the Trump administration issued a zero-tolerance policy for families crossing the U.S. border. According to a recent report, 1,887 new children are now in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since the enactment of this policy just one month ago. This initiative has created a new category of unaccompanied children who will rely on HHS for their safety and well-being. While the stated purpose is to uphold the rule of law, cruelty as a deterrence tactic has been the point of this initiative from the start. The following statement comes from Bruce Lesley,...

The First Focus Campaign for Children applauds Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL-7) for offering an amendment to the Joining Opportunity with Benefits and Services (JOBS) for Success Act (H.R. 5861) that would hold the government accountable to significantly reducing child poverty in the U.S. First Focus Campaign for Children also applauds Congresswoman Chu for her leadership and supportive remarks. While we are disappointed that this amendment was voted down 21-14, we appreciate Chairman Brady and Congresswoman Jenkins’s commitment to continuing to work with Congressman Davis on this policy.This amendment would establish a national child poverty target in the U.S., setting the goal of...

Today, the President released his Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal, which flies in the face of last week’s Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA). The President’s budget violates the BBA’s crucial enactment of parity for non-defense and defense discretionary spending caps and makes draconian, nonsensical cuts to critical safety net programs. As a result, it exacerbates the trend of declining federal investment in our children, which reached an all-time low of just 7.75% of the total federal budget in 2017.Rather than rectify this harmful pattern, the President’s budget creates a blueprint for an America that trivializes the needs of families...

As we near the eleventh hour of the current continuing resolution to fund the government, the bipartisan progress on a budget deal steers us away from months of uncertainty, multiple continuing resolutions, and a looming debt ceiling, all of which leave children and families hanging in the balance.“The emerging proposal paves the way for Congress to continue to work across the aisle to address the pressing needs of children and families, which ought to transcend partisan division,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus Campaign for Children. “We applaud Senate leadership for pulling together this important bipartisan agreement to make...

The fifth Continuing Resolution (CR), released by the House of Representatives with a vote expected today, would temporarily extend funding for virtually all federal programs serving children for the current fiscal year that began 129 days ago until March 23.At that point, the federal government will be through nearly half the entire fiscal year and still not have set a budget for the vast majority of children’s programs.“Government by short-term patches and brinksmanship shows just how dysfunctional our nation’s federal government has become. This is unacceptable for the millions of children and families across this country that are being harmed...

WASHINGTON—Bruce Lesley, President of the First Focus Campaign for Children, reacted to today’s proposed House FY2018 Continuing Resolution (CR):The Senate should modify this bill to make the Children’s Health Insurance Program’s (CHIP) extension permanent or, at the very least, to extend CHIP for 10 years. Doing so would simultaneously stabilize and protect the health coverage for 9 million children and pregnant women while cutting the federal budget deficit by $6 billion over 10 years and another $30 billion or more over the next decade.CHIP funding expired 109 days ago and several states are on the verge of shutting down their...

WASHINGTON---Bruce Lesley, President of the First Focus Campaign for Children, issued the following statement after passage of the Republican tax bill in the House and Senate: “The only simple thing about this tax bill is that the bulk of its benefits flow to wealthy families and corporations at the expense of working families and children. Corporations will enjoy a steep decrease in their tax rate, which will plummet from 35 percent to 21 percent, permanently. In 2027, nearly 83% of the tax breaks are projected to go to the top 1% of earners.  On the other hand, hard-working families...

WASHINGTON--With respect to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Announcement that the House will consider a Continuing Resolution with a short-term, stop-gap measure for states that will exhaust CHIP funding by the end of 2017, the following statement was issued by Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus Campaign for Children: “Congress is more than two months overdue in fulfilling a self-imposed September 30th deadline on extending funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for 8.9 million low income kids. Consequently, every state is rapidly running out of funding. Children deserve more from Congress than short-term, piecemeal measures for individual...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE(WASHINGTON, D.C.)--Bruce Lesley, President of the First Focus Campaign for Children, issued the following statement after House and Senate passage of bills to radically reform the tax code: “In the dead of night on Saturday, the Senate voted 51-49 in support of a tax bill that will either harm or provide only modest relief to all but the wealthiest families with children. Among the harmful impacts on children, the House and Senate bills increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion — a debt that the nation will be passing on to the next generation to pay off well into...