News

Advocates working to end youth homelessness have known for a long time that there are many more youth experiencing homelessness on their own than get reported in national databases.Today, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago released a groundbreaking report that provided hard evidence to back this up. In their report, Missed Opportunities: Youth Homelessness in America, researchers found that each year over four million young people in the U.S. experience homelessness on their own.   This breaks down to 1 in 30 youth (ages 13-17) and 1 in 10 young adults (ages...

WASHINGTON—Bruce Lesley, President of The First Focus Campaign for Children, released the following statement on the CHAMPIONING HEALTHY KIDS ACT of 2017 (HR 3922), a House bill to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP): “We strongly support efforts in Congress to ensure continued health coverage for the 9 million children who rely on CHIP. Having missed the September 30 deadline to extend CHIP funding, states are preparing to dismantle their programs and alert families about disruption in their coverage. The CHAMPIONING HEALTHY KIDS Act includes an important five-year extension to the program. This long-term extension would provide peace of mind and health care security for millions of families and stability...

WASHINGTON--The First Focus Campaign for Children applauds the introduction of the American Family Act of 2017, which would expand the Child Tax Credit to more effectively target low-income families and thereby reduce child poverty.Introduced by Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the proposal would triple the maximum value of the Child Tax Credit to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for children under six), index the credit to inflation, and for the first time, make it fully refundable.  The bill would also distribute the CTC as a monthly $250 credit ($350 for children under six), giving families support throughout the...

WASHINGTON—The Children's Budget Coalition, convened by the First Focus Campaign for Children, is dismayed that Congress passed a Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget resolution today that does little to protect or increase investments in the vital programs that serve American children and families. As outlined in the 2016 Children’s Budget Book, children continue to receive a decreasing share of the federal budget.First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley said: “This divestment in kids has a real and devastating impact on crucial resources for housing, education, nutrition, general welfare, and health, to name just a few. Congress cannot...

From The Atlantic:After a run of unlikely victories last month, it seemed possible for Democrats to forget—at least momentarily—that they were the party shut out of power in Washington.They had watched in gleeful relief as Republicans failed yet again to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer had persuaded President Trump to abandon the GOP leadership in a fiscal agreement, and they were poised to strike yet another favorable deal on immigration. Republicans were mired in the kind of infighting that usually follows defeat.Yet the last two weeks have...

From The Daily Beast:Ever since mid-September, Emily Piper has been on high alert.The commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services drafted a letter to Minnesota’s congressional delegation on the 13th warning that funding for the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would run out soon and the state would have to “take extraordinary measures” to ensure coverage continued after the end of the month.Congress, ultimately, did not act—leaving the fate of some 9 million children who depend on the program nationwide up in the air. And through the start of October, local officials like Piper have had to...

WASHINGTON—The First Focus Campaign for Children welcomes today’s passage through the Senate Finance Committee of the KIDS Act of 2017 (S.1827), which includes a five- year extension of funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). We are also pleased the House is marking up the HEALTHY KIDS Act of 2017 (H.R. 3921), which includes a similar five-year CHIP extension and other key provisions such as a guarantee of affordability standards and extensions of outreach and enrollment grants, pediatric quality measures, and Express Lane Eligibility that will help millions of children access high-quality care.The two bills also sunset a provision in the...

WASHINGTON—The First Focus Campaign for Children is deeply disappointed that Congress allowed the funding deadline to expire for the popular and bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers nearly 9 million low-income American children and 370,000 pregnant women.Created in 1997, CHIP, along with Medicaid, has helped reduce the number of uninsured American children by a remarkable 68 percent, with more than 95 percent of all kids in the U.S. currently enrolled in some form of insurance coverage.First Focus Campaign for Children Bruce Lesley said: "Instead of focusing their resources on the health and well-being of the 9...

From Jezebel's THE SLOT:In the midst of their bid to rip health insurance from millions of Americans under the now-failed Graham-Cassidy bill, Republicans allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire, leaving 9 million kids waiting for their states to run out of money that provides them with free or low-cost health coverage.CHIP was a popular, bipartisan measure that passed under President Bill Clinton in 1997; it was sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the late Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), and was last renewed in 2015. It provides low-cost health coverage for kids whose...

From The Intercept:A program that provides health coverage to some nine million children was allowed by the Republican-controlled Congress to expire over the weekend.The Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a bipartisan initiative that was originally co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and the late Ted Kennedy in the 1990s, allows children who fall above the Medicaid threshold to obtain low-cost health insurance.Republicans diverted nearly all attention to another failed Obamacare repeal attempt. The bill’s co-sponsors, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., claimed to have momentum on their side and enough votes to pass the measure, but...