Over 750 leading national, state, tribal, and local organizations and elected officials wrote to Congress to urge a funding extension of the bipartisan Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV program). Congress must reauthorize the bipartisan-supported Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV program) at its current annual funding level of $400 million before the end of March 2015.The MIECHV program has is proven to improve outcomes for vulnerable children, pregnant women, families, and taxpayers.

Take action: Join these leading advocates for children in calling on Congress to act now to fund home visiting programs now.

Washington – The national Home Visiting Coalition today sent a letter with more than 750 signatories to congressional leadership, underscoring the urgent need for action to extend the authorization for the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program, expiring in just four weeks. MIECHV supports evidence-based home visiting initiatives that provide the support, experience and knowledge critical to success during pregnancy and through the first few years of a child’s life. The letter includes signatories from every state and four territories, including national, state, local and tribal organizations and elected officials. National signatories represent a wide range of organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychological Association, National Association of Community Health Centers, National Association of Social Workers, National PTA, Prevent Child Abuse America, and the Salvation Army.

“Leaders from across the country are sending a clear message to Congress: time’s up,” said Bruce Lesley, president of the First Focus Campaign for Children, which is a member of the coalition. “Act this month to protect home visiting, or this bipartisan success story comes to an end.”

As the letter highlights, decades of research show that home visiting can prevent and mitigate serious problems facing children and their families. These include poor birth outcomes, child abuse and neglect, and childhood cognitive disabilities. Research also shows that home visiting can improve school readiness and academic achievement.

Research also confirms that home visiting can deliver cost-effective responses to the problems facing children and families. A RAND Corporation report found that two evidence-based home visiting programs saved between $1.80 and $5.70 per dollar invested.

MIECHV has a track-record of bipartisan support. Federal funding for voluntary evidence-based home visiting initiatives was first enacted by President George W. Bush. These efforts were consolidated and expanded in 2010, under MIECHV. Since then, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Georgia governor Nathan Deal, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, and other state leaders have tapped MIECHV funding to support locally-focused home visiting initiatives. MIECHV supports home visiting initiatives in every state, the District of Columbia, all five territories, and with tribal organizations. MIECHV offers states considerable flexibility in the design and focus of their home visiting initiatives, while applying accountability requirements that ensure federal funding is used only for supports that are proven to work.

In addition to the letter’s release, advocates for home visiting are coordinating a number of other activities intended to draw attention to the imminent end of MIECHV’s congressional authorization. These activities include grassroots calls to congressional representatives and a Capitol Hill fly-in bringing Prevent Child Abuse America representatives from every state to Washington for meetings with congressional offices.

"Continued funding for MIECHV should be an easy choice for Congress. Thanks to this proven program, states are successfully leveraging resources to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families on the individual, community and statewide levels," said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, a coalition member.

"Put simply, there is no wiser public investment than in the long-term success of our babies and their families. MIECHV provides support to families when it matters most - in their child's earliest years. Leaving the program’s future in limbo jeopardizes not only the federal and state investments, but the work of MIECHV home visitors in communities around the country to help parents put their children on the path to success in school and in life," said Matthew Melmed, Executive Director of ZERO TO THREE®, a coalition member.

“Home visiting programs are pro-family, voluntary, and most importantly, they work,” said James M. Hmurovich, President & CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America. “Democrats and Republicans worked together to pass funding for this program, so today representatives from the entire 50-state Prevent Child Abuse chapter network are simply asking them to work together and fund this successful program again.”

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The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit www.campaignforchildren.org.

The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs is a national resource, partner and advocate for state public health leaders and others working to improve the health of women, children, youth and families, including those with special health care needs.

Founded in 1977, ZERO TO THREE's mission is to ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. We achieve this by translating research and knowledge-specifically information about the kinds of early experiences that help babies and young children thrive.

More than eight million children will be born in the United States during the 114th Congress. The decisions Congress makes about issues ranging from education to tax and immigration policy will shape their lives. Whether the next two years accelerate or impede the healthy development of those children is up to them.

First Focus Campaign for Children recommends this policy agenda to address the most pressing problems facing America’s children. The agenda is made up of six broad categories: ensuring a healthy future, ensuring every child a safe and permanent home, reducing child poverty, expanding opportunity through education and early childhood, valuing children and families, and investing in children and reforming government. Within each category is a list of goals and actions Congress can take to improve the lives of our children.

Washington – The White House today released a federal budget proposing increased investments benefiting nearly every aspect of a child’s life. Key elements of the president’s budget for children include:

• Increased funding to make quality child care affordable for more working families, plus expanded reach for the federal child care tax credit and a new “second earner” credit to help dual-income families manage child care costs;
• Stronger investments in early learning, including a more intensive Head Start initiative, increased preschool development grant funding, and continued funding for evidence-based voluntary home visiting;
• Extending funding for the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program through 2019;
• A renewed commitment to public schools, with additional funding for teacher preparation, incentives to eliminate school funding disparities, and funding for school-community partnerships designed to help disadvantaged students succeed;
• Funding to reduce the incidence of youth violence and support states’ work with youth offenders;
• Increased funding for family housing vouchers;
• Supporting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), which allocates nearly half of its funding to children in homes affected by hunger;
• Repealing federal budget sequestration, ending arbitrary budget caps for a wide range of children’s initiatives;
• Increased funding for child abuse and neglect prevention, as well as a new initiative to reduce the incidence of over-prescription of psychotropic medications to children in foster care

Reacting to the president’s budget proposal, the First Focus Campaign for Children released the following statement from its president, Bruce Lesley:

“From child care to high school, quality health care to preventing abuse and neglect, President Obama’s budget represents a real reinvestment in America’s children. Whether or not Congress adopts these specific proposals, the president’s budget is a model for a federal budget that makes kids a priority, not an afterthought.”

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The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit campaignforchildren.org.

Washington – The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus Campaign for Children today applauded President Barack Obama’s proposal for increased federal investment in children’s early development and education. According to First Focus’s Children’s Budget 2014, just four-tenths of one percent of federal spending during federal fiscal year 2013 was invested in the care and education of nearly 25 million children under school age. The White House proposal, released today, would strengthen family tax credits and increase funding for high quality child care, voluntary home visiting, Head Start and Early Head Start, and universal pre-Kindergarten (pre-K). Key elements of the White House proposal include:

• A federal-state partnership to make quality pre-K affordable for all children under five;
• An additional $80 billion over 10 years for the Child Care and Development Fund – funding sufficient to make quality child care affordable for all children under four;
• Tripling (to $3,000 per child) the maximum Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for families with a child age five or younger;
• Make permanent a set of improvements to the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit that allow those credits to lift millions of children out of poverty every year;
• Extending Head Start to a full school day and year;
• Extending funding for voluntary, evidence-based home visiting, which will otherwise expire at the end of March; and
• Funding partnerships between Early Head Start and local child care providers to improve linkages between quality child care and early education

In response to the White House proposal, the First Focus Campaign for Children released the following statement from its president, Bruce Lesley:

“If we continue to ignore children’s developmental, health, and other needs during their first critical years, we’ll always be playing catch-up on education, on health care, and on a host of other issues. But if we give kids a better chance to thrive during those first years, every other problem gets easier to solve. We applaud President Obama for this new, better, and much more proactive approach to investments in America’s children.”

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The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit campaignforchildren.org.

As the new Congressmembers were sworn in and the new session began, former House majority leader Eric Cantor made the plea, “I hope the president and members from both parties will keep one number in mind: 8,053,000. That is an estimate of the number of new Americans expected to be born between now and the end of this Congress and President Obama's second term two years from now.”

Cantor recognizes there’s a lot at stake for those 8,053,000 children in the policies and the priorities of the new Congress. That’s the right idea, but his priority for these kids is a growing economy, trade promotion authority, patent law reform, and expanding charter schools. As we wrote in our response on CNBC, what Cantor misses is that there are a sweeping range of issues before Congress that will more fundamentally impact the lives of these kids.

Data from the nonpartisan Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center paints a clear picture of the future for these 8,053,000 children if Congress does not make children’s policies a real priority:

• More than 1.7 million will live in poverty (tweet this)
• More than 73,000 of those children will be abused or neglected (tweet this)
• More than 560,000 will not have health coverage (tweet this)
• More than 3.3 million will be the children of immigrants, many living in fear that the government will take their parents away (tweet this)
• 4 million will not be enrolled in pre-kindergarten (tweet this)

CNBC

By Bruce Lesley

Former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor did something in his Monday commentary ("Here's what Congress needs to do in 2015") most politicians never do: put children first. His observation that 8,053,000 children will be born during this Congress is a powerful reminder about the consequences of congressional action or inaction. Those consequences aren't just measured in news cycles dominated, elections won, and legislatures controlled. They're measured in children's lives.

What's missing from Congressman Cantor's commentary is the sweeping range of issues before Congress with the potential to fundamentally impact America's children. But, using data from the nonpartisan Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center, that's a picture we can paint...

Read more

Over the last year, First Focus Campaign for Children has been hard at work making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. Below is the list of our most popular resources for child advocates, policy makers, and the media in 2014. See the top 10 resources of our partners at First Focus.

1. Record Number of Homeless Students in U.S. Schools (Statement): Coalition statement on U.S. Department of Education data showing the United States has a record number of homeless K-12 students with over 1.2 million children being counted, an increase of 8 percent from the previous school year. 81 percent of the children are not recognized as homeless by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which prioritizes homeless adults.

2. 750+ Leaders’ Letter to Congress: Extend funding for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (Letter): Over 750 leading national, state, tribal, and local organizations and elected officials wrote to Congress to urge a funding extension of the bipartisan Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV program).

3. 2014 Champions for Children (Awards): Champions and Defenders of Children awards recognize the top 100 Members of Congress working to make children and families a national priority in federal policy and budget decisions.

4. Dr. Phil and 100+ Organizations to Congress: Protect Kids from Overmedication (Press release): Dr. Phil McGraw, the leading mental health expert, television personality and outspoken children’s rights activist, cosigned a letter joining more than 100 organizations urging lawmakers to support a budget initiative aimed at reducing unwarranted overmedication of children in foster care. We coordinated the letter in partnership with Voice for Adoption, a national organization advocating for children in foster care.

5. CHIP is Critical for the Future of Children’s Health (Fact sheet): This paper discusses how the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) fits into today’s health care system, focusing on why CHIP continues to be an essential source of coverage for kids. It also underscores the consequences for children’s health of the coming funding crisis and why protecting the future of children’s health means continued funding.

6. Voters Support CHIP Extension (Poll): We commissioned opinion research to assess public support for CHIP. The survey, completed by the Republican opinion research firm American Viewpoint, found nearly three-fourths of likely voters support the extension of CHIP funding.

7. Reject Congressman Issa’s DACA Proposal (Letter): Letter to all members of the House of Representatives regarding the misguided, irresponsible, and mean-spirited Dear Colleague letter circulated by Congressman Darrel Issa in the June The Congressman’s letter proposed to address the issue of an increase of child refugees fleeing terrible and unspeakably violent circumstances and arriving at the Southern Border by eliminating the highly successful and popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative.

8. Homeless Children and Youth Act to Close Gaps in HUD Services (Blog post): This blog post covers the over 1 million homeless children in the United States, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s current definition of homelessness that excludes these children, and proposed legislation that would make several changes to the HUD definition and grant awards process in an effort to improve flexibility and efficiency.

9. Bipartisan Bill Re-Examines Overuse of Standardized Tests (Blog post): This blog post discusses how students, teachers, and schools have become unnecessarily overburdened by the growth of standardized testing and how proposed legislation would end mandatory over-testing and return to standardized tests offered once per grade span.

10. Protect her from harm (Advertisement): This advertisement, circulated to Congress, urges lawmakers to vote against a proposal that would have harmed over 1 million children and driven more families into poverty.

This week, the 114^thsession of Congress was gaveled into order. Among it were 45 returning membersrecognized as First Focus Campaign for Children 2014 Defenders of Children. Defenders of Children support efforts to advance policies to improve the well-being of America’s children.

The new Congress is a new opportunity for children’s advocates, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, future parents, pediatricians to share how important it is that children are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. A recent poll of House and Senate offices by the Congressional Management Foundation found that most consider less than 30 social media comments enough to gain attention on an issue. And over half said that just a single constituent is enough to be influential.

Please take a minute to welcome back on Twitter the 2014 Defenders of Children, thank them for making it their priority to invest in kids, and share with them the issues important to you in the New Year. You can use the suggested tweet below, or find your Congressional representatives’ Twitter account by state. You can also see and thank returning Champions or Children, the highest level of recognition, here.

Welcome back to Congress, @Campaign4Kids Defender of Children @MemberTwitter! Please continue to make children the priority, #InvestInKids.
Tweet this now.

Alaska
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)California
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA)
Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA)
Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA)
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. David Valadao (R-CA)

Connecticut
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)

Florida
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)

Georgia
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

Illinois
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

Iowa
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Louisiana
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-LA)

Maryland
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

Michigan
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI)

Minnesota
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN)

Mississippi
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)Nevada
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

New Jersey
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (D-NJ)
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ)

New Mexico
Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)

New York
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
Rep. José Serrano (D-NY)
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)

Ohio
Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH)
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH)

Oregon
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)

Pennsylvania
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)

Rhode Island
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

South Carolina
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)

Utah
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

This week, the 114^th session of Congress was gaveled into order. Among it were 46 returning members recognized as First Focus Campaign for Children 2014 Champions for Children. Champions for Children make extraordinary efforts to protect and improve the future of America’s next generation.

The new Congress is a new opportunity for children’s advocates, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, future parents, pediatricians to share how important it is that children are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. A recent poll of House and Senate offices by the Congressional Management Foundation found that most consider less than 30 social media comments enough to gain attention on an issue. And over half said that just a single constituent is enough to be influential.

Please take a minute to welcome back on Twitter the 2014 Champions for Children, thank them for making it their priority to invest in kids, and share with them the issues important to you in the New Year. You can use the suggested tweet below, or find your Congressional representatives' Twitter account by state. You can also see and thank returning Defenders of Children, the next highest honor, here.

Welcome back to Congress, @Campaign4Kids Champion for Children @MemberTwitter! Please continue to make children the priority, #InvestInKids.
Tweet this now.

Alaska
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Arizona
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ)

California
Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA)
Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA)
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)

Colorado
Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO)

Connecticut
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)

Florida
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)

Georgia
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

Hawaii
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI)

Illinois
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL)

Maine
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Massachusetts
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

Minnesota
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

New York
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY)
Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

Ohio
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH)
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)

Oregon
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Pennsylvania
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA)

Rhode Island
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI)
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI)
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)

Texas
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
Rep. Gene Green (D-TX)
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX)
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX)

Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT)

Virginia
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA)

Washington
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA)
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA)

Wisconsin
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI)