Washington – The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus Campaign for Children today sent a letter to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging opposition to legislation (H.R. 3102) weakening federal investments in child nutrition.

The proposal would cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps) funding by nearly $40 billion over 10 years. Forty-seven percent of SNAP funding goes to children.

“Yes, the federal government has budget problems, but children didn’t cause them, and cutting anti-hunger investments is the wrong way to solve them,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley. “It’s simple math – nearly half of every SNAP dollar goes to children, so this plan takes food away from hungry kids.”

The bill also makes several SNAP policy changes that would make it harder for hungry children to get the food they need. Specifically, it would:

• Cut funding for SNAP Education, an initiative that helps parents learn how to buy and prepare healthy foods and get the most nutritional value for every SNAP dollar;
• Direct state SNAP agencies to take families’ SNAP funds away if not fully used within 60 days, as families might do to stretch resources in response to a job loss, an illness, a wage cut, or other economic setback;
• Deny SNAP to some ex-offenders, which harms children by reducing the family’s net SNAP resources;
• Encourage states to impose a work requirements on families receiving SNAP, by allowing states to reallocate half of any savings from a work requirement program that results in SNAP denials (but does not require states to expand job training slots or reinvest recovered funds in job training programs); and
• Allow states to drug-test children and other SNAP recipients.

“There’s room for honest debate on nutrition policy, but the idea of drug-testing three-year-olds should be a non-starter,” said Lesley.

The legislation would also weaken the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). FFVP provides funding to help local schools make fresh produce available to children in low-income communities, but the bill would make dried, canned, and frozen produce – including products with added sugar, salt, or other additives – eligible for FFVP funding.

“Politicians and agribusiness lobbyists can’t fool the American people – pizza’s not a vegetable, and canned fruits packed in sugar syrup aren’t fresh,” said Lesley.

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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 www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.

Washington – Federal investments in children’s health insurance and nutrition mitigate the pressing economic problems facing America’s children and working families, according to a snapshot of new Census data released today by First Focus Campaign for Children, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization.

“Headlines are filled with indicators that the economy is improving, but the Census data show that kids are still reeling from the recession and one in five live in poverty,” said Ed Walz, spokesman for First Focus Campaign for Children. “The good news is we know what works to lift children out of poverty, and our leaders in Congress have opportunities to protect these investments in the upcoming budget debates.”

The snapshot reveals 16.1 million children, or 21.8 percent, live in poverty in the United States. This is in comparison to 46.5 million, or 15 percent, of all Americans. Poverty is defined by a family income of $23,283 in 2012 for a family of four.

Child Nutrition
Federal investments have a proven track record of lifting children out of poverty. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) protects children from poverty by reducing out-of-pocket food costs. Federally funded SNAP reduced childhood poverty in 2012 by 1.67 million children.

Children’s Health
Investments in children’s health coverage such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), are responsible for reducing the number of uninsured kids in 2012 to 6.6 million, or 8.9 percent. The percentage of children who are uninsured is lower than the 48 million, or 15.4 percent, uninsured Americans.

“We are pleased that Medicaid and CHIP have helped us to continue reducing the numbers of uninsured kids but, with over 6.5 million kids living without health coverage, there is more work to be done," said Walz.

Family Tax Credits
Family tax credits are an effective shield against child poverty. The poverty numbers would have been significantly worse, were it not for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit. The EITC reduced child poverty by 2.9 million, or 4 percent.

“We know what Congress can do to protect kids from poverty fallout: Protect SNAP and family tax credits, and extend and enhance the Children’s Health Insurance Program so it can work with Medicaid to cover uninsured kids,” said Walz. “Today’s data provides a clear roadmap of which programs are most successful in reaching our most vulnerable kids. The question is whether Congress has the will to act."

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Washington — A stopgap budget measure gaining rapid support among majority members of the U.S. House of Representatives would cut funding for the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by 70 percent on October 1, 2013, according to the bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus Campaign for Children. The joint resolution (H.J.Res. 62), authored by Congressman Tom Graves (R-GA) Thursday already has more than 40 cosponsors.

CHIP funding was extended through September, 2015, by Congress in 2009, as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) national health care law. H.J.Res. 62 rescinds “any funds” made available through the ACA for federal fiscal year 2014, which begins on October 1, 2013. According to a First Focus Campaign for Children analysis of the resolution, its net result would be a $13.3 billion October 1st drop in CHIP funding from $19 billion to $5.7 billion.

“CHIP has been bipartisan from the start, and a lot of the representatives who’ve cosponsored this resolution have been solid CHIP supporters. I’ve got to believe this is the mother of all unintended consequences,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley.

CHIP was enacted in 1997, by a Republican-controlled Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton. It provides quality, affordable health insurance coverage through private insurance companies to an estimated nine million children nationwide. In partnership with Medicaid, CHIP has protected children from losing health care in the wake of a recession that cost millions of parents their employer-sponsored health insurance.

“Unintended or not, the consequences here would be devastating for children and state governments. Before lawmakers cast a vote for this proposal, they should make sure they understand what they’re voting for,” said Lesley.

Washington — The First Focus Campaign for Children, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization, reacted to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) release of a set of policy reforms designed to reduce the harm to children and families resulting from immigration enforcement actions against parents. These reforms, collectively referred to as the “Parental Interest Directive,” represent a major advance for children and ensure that immigration enforcement measures are implemented in a responsible and humane manner. Key provisions of the Parental Interest Directive include:

• Establish points of contact on parental interests in each ICE field office;
• Create processes to regularly identify and review cases involving parents;
• Consider the best interest of children in decisions regarding a parent’s detention placement;
• Ensure parents are able to participate in family court proceedings, including through alternative means such as videoconference when possible;
• Enable parents to regularly visit with their children while they are in detention;
• Ensure that parents being removed from the United States can coordinate their repatriation with their child or arrange for the child’s care; and
• Provide training for immigration and detention facility personnel on best practices for protecting children and family unity.

These reforms align with current ICE enforcement priorities, but as administrative actions, they are subject to practical limitations. The Parental Interest Directive might be unilaterally reversed in the future by a different presidential administration, without hearing or the opportunity for public input.

Compared to comprehensive immigration reform legislation passed earlier this year by the U.S. Senate, the Parental Interest Directive encompasses a limited range of protections important for family unity. Specifically, the Senate legislation also:

• Creates an inclusive roadmap to citizenship for the majority of undocumented immigrants, including DREAMers and their parents, removing the threat of family separation due to detention and deportation;
• Provides immigration judges discretion to consider potential hardship to a U.S. citizen or lawfully permanent resident child when making removal or admissibility decisions, eliminating a double-standard in current law that disregards harm to children;
• Establishes policies to improve the ability of children placed in state child welfare systems to reunite with parents who have been detained or deported; and
• Creates a mechanism for DREAM Act-eligible youth and parents of U.S. citizen and lawfully permanent resident children who left the U.S. or were deported to return to the U.S. and earn citizenship, if they meet certain Homeland Security waiver criteria.

The ICE reforms respond to a growing crisis for children, as immigration enforcement actions have intensified in recent years. The nonpartisan Human Impact Partners estimated earlier this year that more than 150,000 U.S. citizen children were affected by a parent’s detention or deportation in 2012, and the Applied Research Center has estimated that 5,100 children with a detained or deported parent are currently living in state foster care systems.

In response to the Parental Interest Directive announcement, the First Focus Campaign for Children released the following statement by president Bruce Lesley:

“The Parental Interest Directive is a major victory for children, reducing the likelihood that immigration enforcement will tear families apart and reducing the harm to kids when separation is unavoidable. But only Congress can give these critical reforms the force and permanence of law and deliver the other protections children need.”

Washington -- The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a hearing today to inform the development of legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States as children. The bipartisan First Focus Campaign for Children submitted testimony for the hearing. The organization released the following statement by Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley:

“Children have a lot at stake in the immigration debate, so it’s encouraging that the House is putting children on the agenda. But children need much more from reform than an approach that provides a pathway to citizenship only for undocumented immigrants who entered as children. Kids – immigrant and citizen alike – need safeguards that protect their families from being shattered by immigration enforcement actions against their parents. Kids need the same standing as adults in hardship-based admissibility proceedings. And they need reforms that give children the best chance to reunite with parents who have been detained or deported. Getting immigration reform done means getting it right for kids, so the legislation informed by today’s hearing needs to be the beginning, not the end, of the reform effort for kids.”

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Washington – The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus Campaign for Children sent a letter today urging members of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee to support the committee’s draft federal fiscal year 2014 appropriations bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies. The “Labor-HHS” appropriations bill authored by Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) would, as the letter observes, restore recent cuts to critical children’s initiatives and strengthen investments in key priorities.

“Chairman Harkin’s plan recognizes that the only way to build a stronger tomorrow for children is by providing the things they need to succeed today,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley.

Automatic federal budget “sequestration” cuts reduced investments in children by more than $4 billion in 2013 alone. Since 2010, federal “discretionary” budget cuts have cost children nearly $6 billion. The committee’s Labor-HHS bill is part of an overall appropriations allocations package that would replace sequestration, restore cuts to kids and make targeted investments in America’s future. The Senate bill would benefit specific children’s priorities, including early education, K-12 education, and primary health care. The bill would also finance a new State Paid Leave Fund, intended to help states create initiatives that allow working parents remain employed while managing a child’s illness or other family emergency.

By contrast, the comparable U.S. House of Representatives funding allocation would cut investments in children by more than 22 percent from pre-sequester federal fiscal year 2013 levels. While the House has not yet released Labor-HHS appropriations language, the letter observes that applying this cut proportionally throughout the bill would mean cuts to education for children with disabilities, schools serving military families and Native American children, health and nutrition for pregnant women, new moms, and their babies, and less funding to protect children from child abuse and neglect.

“Yes, the federal government has budget problems, but children didn’t create them, and Chairman Harkin recognizes that denying kids the help they need to grow and thrive is the wrong way to solve them,” said Lesley.

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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 www.ffcampaignforchildren.org .

Washington — Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced today the Help Separated Families Act, legislation to improve the likelihood that children taken into state custody following immigration enforcement actions against their parents can ultimately reunify with their parents. Similar language has been included in Senate immigration reform legislation (S. 744), so today’s introduction of House legislation sets the stage for a House debate over the impact of immigration enforcement policies on children and their parents.

“Families belong together, and every parent should have a say in what happens to their kids,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley. “For years, Rep. Roybal-Allard has championed legislation reflecting those basic family values.”

“We have met many parents who cannot find their children, cannot participate in child welfare proceedings, or cannot reunify with their children simply because they are involved in the immigration system,” said Michelle Brané, Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Enforcement of our immigration laws should not, and does not have to, come at the expense of family unity and child well-being.”

“I reintroduced the Help Separated Families Act today to prevent the tragic placement of children with strangers in foster care following the detention or deportation of a parent. Separating these American kids from their families does not reflect our American values.” said Rep. Roybal-Allard. “As a nation, we claim to value children and families, but at least 5,000 American kids are in foster care today because of our deeply unjust immigration laws. My bill would take sensible steps to prevent U.S. children from being separated from their loved ones. This legislation is critically important and I call on Speaker Boehner to finally get serious about passing comprehensive immigration reform, including the provisions of my bill, so that we can end the deportations which have tragically altered so many lives. Let’s put families first in immigration reform.”

Reunification efforts are often frustrated by disconnects between the immigration system and state child welfare system. It is considered a child welfare best practice to place children separated from their parents with grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other family members. Yet many federally funded child welfare agencies reject otherwise qualified relative caregivers if they are undocumented immigrants. Child welfare best practice also involves parents in discussions about the care of their children, but parents detained or deported by immigration authorities often are unable to participate in court hearings or meet child welfare administrative deadlines. In such cases, parental rights may even be terminated when detention or deportation denies parents the opportunity to meet child welfare requirements.

The Help Separated Families Act eliminates several barriers to reunification. It prohibits federally funded child welfare agencies from relying solely on immigration status in child placement determinations. It also clarifies that certain forms of foreign identification are sufficient for purposes of a prospective caregiver's background check and ensures that questions about caregivers' immigration status are limited to eligibility determinations for relevant services or programs. Finally, unless certain conditions are met, the bill prevents child welfare agencies from filing for termination of parental rights in cases where immigration enforcement is the main reason for a child's removal from the parent's custody. Comparable provisions were included in the Senate immigration bill (S. 744).

“These issues affect a significant number of children,” said Brané. “According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, more than 200,000 removal orders were issued for parents of U.S. citizen children during a recent period of just over two years.”

The Applied Research Center estimated in 2011 that more than 5,000 children remained in state child welfare systems because of enforcement actions against a parent. Up to 5.5 million children – the vast majority of whom are U.S. citizens – live with at least one undocumented parent.

“Millions of kids go to school every morning not knowing if the government will come that day to take their parents away,” said Lesley. “The Help Separated Families Act gives families shattered by immigration enforcement a chance to stay together.”

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Washington — The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus today released an analysis of immigration reform legislation passed today by the United States Senate. The analysis finds that the bill offers significant gains for children and families, but a few priority issues remained unaddressed by the Senate.

“Children of immigrants account for one-fourth of children in America, so getting reform done means getting it right for kids,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley.

The First Focus analysis finds that the Senate bill offers important improvements in several specific areas, including:

• DREAM Act – DREAM Act provision would make a five-year citizenship path available without an upper age cap to qualifying immigrants who entered the United States as children, and would make student financial aid available to qualifying DREAMers,
• Family Reunification Waivers – Gives immigration officials the discretion to waive ineligibilty grounds for persons who were previously deported and meet specified requirements, creating opportunities for deported DREAM Act-eligible youth or parents of U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident children to reunify with family and apply for citizenship;
• Protections for Children and Families Affected by Immigration Enforcement – Includes an array of common-sense reforms to improve the likelihood that children and parents separated by immigration enforcement activities can reunite, ranging from ensuring that parents detained by immigration authorities can make phone calls to make arrangements for the care of their children to protections against premature termination of parental rights based solely on a parent’s detention or deportation;
• Children’s Interests in Immigration Proceedings – Grants immigration judges discretion to consider the consequences of a deportation or exclusion on children on the same terms as adults – under current law, judges must apply a more stringent test to hardship claims based on harm to children than to those involving harm to adults; and
• Unaccompanied Children – Ensures that immigrant children who enter the United States without their parents are represented by counsel, improves detention standards, and strengthens screening mechanisms and training for Customs and Border Patrol agents.

“From the strongest DREAM Act provision Congress has ever considered to common-sense reforms that give kids equal standing in immigration hearings, the Senate bill offers important gains for children,” said Lesley.

The analysis also concludes that important priorities for children were not addressed by the Senate, including:

• Bipartisan Little DREAMers Amendment – The bill requires young children to wait up to 13 years to qualify for citizenship, because the Senate did not consider an amendment sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that would give younger children access to the five-year DREAM Act citizenship path; and
• Access to the Safety Net – The bill maintains immigrant children’s eligibility for federal anti-poverty tax credits; however, it does not give children who are in registered provisional status access to the anti-hunger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income anti-poverty initiatives.

“As the debate continues, Congress must ensure that kids get the health care, food, and basic resources they need to learn and thrive,” said Lesley.

The analysis also notes that the Senate bill significantly expands border enforcement, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $40 billion. The bill directs a massive military-styled deployment of personnel, aerial drones and other technology, and a 700-mile fence throughout the southern United States, affecting the communities that are home to millions of children.

“The $46 billion in border militarization expenses required by this bill would fund Head Start for more than five million children. Congress should be investing scarce federal dollars to help kids, not cutting early education and militarizing border communities,” said Lesley.

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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 www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.

Washington – The U.S. House of Representatives today voted 195-234 to reject the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (H.R. 1947, colloquially the House “Farm Bill”), legislation weakening federal investments in child nutrition.

The legislation would have cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps) by more than $20 billion over 10 years. Forty-seven percent of SNAP funding goes to children.

“The House Farm Bill’s defeat is a victory for kids. Yes, the federal government has budget problems, but hungry kids didn’t cause them, and cutting anti-hunger investments is the wrong way to solve them,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley. “It’s simple math – nearly half of every SNAP dollar goes to children, so the House Farm Bill would have taken food away from hungry kids.”

The bill also makes several SNAP policy changes that would make it harder for hungry children to get the food they need. Specifically, it would have:

• Directed state SNAP agencies to take families’ SNAP funds away if not fully used within 60 days, as families might do to stretch resources in response to a job loss, an illness, a wage cut, or other economic setback;
• Ended the U.S.-Mexico Partnership for Nutrition Assistance Initiative, which helps low-income, legal immigrant (often citizen) children get access to the food they need;
• Denied SNAP to some ex-offenders, which harms children by reducing the family’s net SNAP resources;
• Encouraged states to impose a work requirements on families receiving SNAP, by allowing states to reallocate half of any savings from a work requirement program that results in SNAP denials; and
• Allowed states to drug-test children and other SNAP recipients.

“It’s too early to know why the House Farm Bill failed, but I sure hope the idea of drug-testing three-year-olds played a part,” said Lesley.

The legislation would also weaken the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). FFVP provides funding to help local schools make fresh produce available to children in low-income communities, but the bill would make dried, canned, and frozen produce – including products with added sugar, salt, or other additives – eligible for FFVP funding.

“Politicians and agribusiness lobbyists can’t fool the American people – pizza’s not a vegetable, and canned fruits packed in sugar syrup aren’t fresh,” said Lesley.

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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 www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.

Washington – The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations voted today to approve legislation funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and related agencies for federal fiscal year (FY) 2014. The legislation provides $548 million more for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) for FY 2014 than 2013 levels. This overall funding level allows the Senate bill to maintain investments in critical nutrition initiatives, including:

• An initiative that helps new mothers breastfeed their babies;
• A congressionally mandated initiative to modernize WIC, by moving from paper eligibility cards to more secure electronic cards; and
• Restore partially the WIC contingency fund, allowing WIC to accommodate increases in food costs or increases in need driven by economic conditions.

In addition to the legislation’s WIC provisions, it also funds School Meals Equipment Grants. Many local schools rely on central kitchens and maintain only warming equipment on site. The bill would provide $35 million in competitive grant funding to help schools acquire kitchen equipment ranging from salad bars to ovens. These grants would also help schools replace equipment like deep fryers with equipment useful in preparing meals better aligned with the objectives of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010.

The Senate’s increased child nutrition funding reflects higher overall funding allocations made under the Senate-passed FY 2014 budget resolution. In total, the Senate appropriations allocation package provides an estimated $3.3 billion more to critical children’s priorities than 2013 funding levels. When federal budget sequestration is taken into account, the increased funding allocation for children’s priorities in 2014 is even greater.

This compares to a House Agriculture Appropriations bill that cuts WIC by more than $200 million in 2014 and fails to fund School Meals Equipment Grants. The overall House funding allocation package would result in estimated cuts totaling nearly $15 billion to critical children’s priorities.

In response, First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley released the following statement:

“Yes, the federal government has budget problems, but hungry kids didn’t cause them. While the House makes deep and dangerous cuts to child nutrition, the Senate Appropriations Committee recognizes that we can’t build a stronger tomorrow for children by denying them the things they need to succeed today.”

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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 www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.