Letters and Correspondence

First Focus Campaign for Children — in collaboration with 17 other child and family advocacy organizations — sent the following letter to the leadership of both chambers of Congress urging them to ensure the Child Tax Credit is fully refundable and reaches all children in low- and no-income households with the greatest need.Excerpt from the letter:This is a pivotal moment for Congress to enact lasting, structural policy change to both mitigate the economic hardships falling on our families and children due to COVID that are disproportionately harming communities of color, and tackle our persistent and unacceptably high level of child...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus alerting them to a few issues of importance for Hispanic children and to pledge our support in working with them to address these issues.Excerpt from the letter:The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act corrects a major problem in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in which children were valued at just 41.7 percent of adults ($500 per child versus $1,200 for adults) under the recovery rebate program. The HEROES Act provides full parity of $1,200 for both adults and...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to Congressional leaders in both houses with a set of recommendations to address the needs of our nation’s children and youth as our country faces two crises — the spread of COVID-19 and the resulting economic impact as businesses and schools remain closed and consumers stay home.Excerpt from the letter:This outbreak and the resulting economic crisis are falling hardest on the most vulnerable among us, including our nation’s children. It is disrupting every facet of children’s lives and we cannot yet know all of the negative and long-lasting implications it will...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to Congressional leaders in both houses, urging them to prioritize the well-being of children in America as they respond to the Coronavirus outbreak.Excerpt from the letter:We applaud Congress for passing the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and now urge Congress to again act quickly to provide additional and immediate economic relief in the form of increased access to healthcare, direct cash transfers, housing assistance, education support, child care assistance and more in order to protect the health of all children and families in the United States and provide households with some...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to Representative Veronica Escobar, urging them to thank her for her leadership in introducing H.R. 2662, the Asylum Seeker Protection Act. Excerpt from the letter:The legislation would defund the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” or Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy, which began on January 29, 2019, and denies asylum seekers of due process and endangers their safety and well-being. The most recent reports are that U.S. officials have turned away and sent more than 59,000 people to Mexico, including more than 16,000 children, to wait on a court date.Read the...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to all 100 U.S. Senators, urging them to consider legislation that would improve the lives and well-being of children.Excerpt from the letter:In the past, an important hallmark of the Senate has been its ability to work on a bipartisan basis to reach agreement on major important problems facing the nation and its future. At this moment in time, there are a number of critical challenges facing our nation’s children that the Senate should address. Children should not be treated as an afterthought. The best interest of children should be bipartisan and...

The following letter, signed by 54 presidents and CEOs was sent to all Members of Congress requesting reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).Excerpt from the letter:Children succeed when they are provided with the safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments necessary for healthy development. Creating conditions for healthy child development requires policy and practice solutions to minimize parental stress and build community capacity to support families in a meaningful way.As chief executive officers of organizations dedicated to helping children and families thrive, and as organizations providing evidence-based and research-informed programs that are at the forefront of delivering...

First Focus Campaign for Children spearheaded the following letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) — along with 14 other advocacy groups joining as signatories — applauding his leadership to advance both important tax improvements that benefit children and low-income families and child care legislation. The letter also urges the Chairman and committee members to continue to ensure that any legislative effort to move some tax provisions (extenders and/or technical corrections to the 2017 law) this year includes tax improvements that would help to lift kids and working families out of poverty and build a tax...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) to express support for the Protect American Values Act (S. 2482), which she introduced.Excerpt from the letter: The Trump Administration’s new public charge rule, finalized on August 12th, 2019 despite historic public opposition, imposes sweeping changes to long-standing, bipartisan immigration policy that jeopardizes America’s future and intensifies the challenges faced by immigrant families and children.Children of immigrants are the fastest-growing group of children in the country, and approximately one in four (8 million) children live in a family with at least one immigrant parent. Therefore, the...

First Focus Campaign for Children sent the following letter to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) opposing the Safe Students Act (H.R. 3200). Excerpt from the Letter: As an organization committed to the health and safety of all children in the United States, we are extremely concerned with the attempt to undermine a vital protection for children, the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. This act makes it unlawful for an individual to knowingly possess a firearm at a place that the individual knows or has reasonable cause to believe is a school zone .With gun violence occurring at an alarming rate,...