CHILDREN’S BUDGET 2019 About First Focus on Children First Focus on Children is a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. First Focus on Children takes a unique approach to advocacy, engaging both traditional and non‑traditional partners in a broad range of efforts to increase investments in programs that address the needs of our nation’s children. In all our work, we interact directly with stakeholders, including state partners and policymakers, and seek to raise awareness regarding public policies that affect children and families. Our goal is to ensure that children have the resources necessary to help develop in a healthy and nurturing environment. For more information about First Focus on Children, or to make a donation, please visit www.firstfocus.org or call 202.657.0670. Questions, comments, or suggestions about Children’s Budget 2019 can be emailed to Michelle Dallafior, Senior Vice President, Federal Budget and Tax Policy, [email protected] and Rachel Merker, Director of Policy and Research, [email protected] Acknowledgements Children’s Budget 2019 was made possible with the generous support and encouragement of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. First Focus on Children would like to thank Atlantic Philanthropies and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the original founders of First Focus on Children, for their continued critical support of our efforts on behalf of children. Thank you to the staff of First Focus on Children for their contributions and input: Messellech “Selley” Abebe Carrie Fitzgerald Michele Kayal Averi Pakulis Drew Aherne Trenessa Freeman Bruce Lesley Kristen Torres Cara Baldari Karen Howard (former staff) Rachel Merker Jonny Yao Michelle Dallafior Notes Edited by Michelle Dallafior, Senior Vice President of Budget and Tax Policy and Rachel Merker, Director of Policy and Research Published in 2019 by First Focus on Children First Focus on Children • 1400 Eye St. NW, Suite 650 • Washington, DC 20005 Printed in the United States of America by First Focus on Children Designed by Meredith Cardani CHILDREN’S BUDGET 2019 1 Message from the President of First Focus on Children 6 A Successful 2020 Decennial Census: Count All Children 8 Notes on Children’s Budget 2019 11 Overall Spending 17 Program Details 17 Child Welfare Programs 27 Early Childhood Programs 35 Education Programs 59 Health Programs 77 Housing Programs 85 Income Support Programs 91 Nutrition Programs 99 Safety Programs 111 Training Programs 114 Alphabetical Index of Programs 116 Index of Discretionary Programs by Appropriations Subcommittee 118 Index of Programs by Department and Bureau Message from the President of First Focus on Children Bruce Lesley Shortchanging Our Children Harms the Nation The future prosperity of any society depends on its ability to boost the health and well-being of the next generation. When we devote resources to improve programs and services that help all children be healthy, get a good education, and contribute to our collective success, we all benefit and help ensure that we are a thriving country in the decades to come. We pay an enormous cost for failing to invest in our children. Under-investing harms just about every aspect of a child’s development, including their physical and mental health, nutrition, cognitive growth, education, and subsequent employment. Beyond the human costs, there are also long-term costs to society for its failure to address major problems facing our children and youth. As an example, nearly one in five children in this country live in poverty. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate for children in 2017 was 62 percent higher than that of adults.1 To ascertain the societal costs of child poverty, professors Mark Rank and Michael McLaughlin published a study in Social Work Research in which they estimated that child poverty cost the nation $1.03 trillion in 2015 due to “lower economic productivity, higher health care and criminal justice costs, and child homelessness and maltreatment costs.” This total cost is equivalent to 5.4 percent of the nation’s GDP.2 As Frederick Douglas said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” First Focus on Children: Children’s Budget 2019 1 7.21% Only 7.21 percent of federal spending 92.79% went to children in FY 2019. Federal spending on children All other federal spending The Federal Budget Represents Our Nation’s Priorities and Values The federal budget process is supposed to represent our nation’s priorities and values, and the end result should reflect what the American people want. As Vox reporter Dylan Matthews explains: The budget is a moral document. It’s not clear where that phrase originates, but it’s become a staple of fiscal policy debates in DC, and for very good reason. Budgets lay out how a fifth of the national economy is going to be allocated. They make trade-offs between cancer treatment and jet fighters, scientific research and tax cuts, national parks and border fences. These are all decisions with profound moral implications. Budgets, when implemented, can lift millions out of poverty, or consign millions more to it. They can provide universal health insurance or take coverage away from those who have it. They can fuel wars or support peacekeeping.3 Unfortunately, children are often an afterthought among federal policymakers in this process. Time and time again, children’s policy issues are ignored or neglected by Congress. In fact, as our report finds, the share of federal spending dedicated to children dropped from 7.98 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2015 to 7.21 percent in FY 2019—confirming once again the long-term downward trend in the federal budget for children. Even worse, the report finds that President Trump’s proposed budget, if enacted, would cause the share of children’s spending to drop to just 6.45 percent in FY 2020—a real cut of 8 percent or $20 billion. Under current law, things will only get worse over the next decade. The Urban Institute’s Kids’ Share 2018 report projects that the downward trend will continue well into the future. As the authors explain: Children’s programs are projected to receive just 1 cent of every dollar of the projected increase in federal spending over the next decade, compared to 61 cents for [the adult portion of] Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and 29 cents for interest on the debt.4 In this report, Children’s Budget 2019, we estimate that interest on the federal deficit already exceeds all federal spending on children. 2 First Focus on Children: Children’s Budget 2019 These facts all point to a growing disaster for children and our nation’s future. Unless dramatic changes are made to the federal budget process, and we begin to prioritize children in our society: (1) Investments in children will be a rapidly declining share of all federal spending; (2) T he burden of the fast growing federal debt will be passed on to our children by adults who have favored cutting taxes and increasing defense spending over investing in children and reducing the federal deficit; (3) The rapidly growing share of Medicare and Social Security costs due to the retirement of Baby Boomers will be borne by the next generation; and (4) A t some point, future austerity measures will fall disproportionately upon our children and their children. Even if Congress finds political will to make much needed investments in children, doing so will be difficult because the federal budget process is heavily stacked against kids. A recent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) report, Budgeting for the Next Generation: Does the Budget Process Prioritize Children?, finds that the budget process systematically disadvantages and shortchanges our nation’s children.5 CRFB’s report highlights: • While much of spending on adults is mandatory, spending on children is disproportionately discretionary and thus must be reviewed and renewed with other appropriations. • Spending on children is disproportionately temporary, and it requires far more regular reauthorization and appropriation than programs for adults. • Spending on adults is rarely limited while spending on children is often capped, constraining what can be spent for most major children’s programs. • Most programs for children lack built-in growth, leading spending on children to erode relative to spending on adults and relative to the economy. • Programs for children lack dedicated revenue and thus lack the political advantage and protection of programs for seniors who enjoy this benefit. • Growing spending on adults is burdening younger generations by driving up debt and thus reducing future income and increasing costs. As CRFB explains, “These features of the current budget process are increasingly leading spending on children to be crowded out, as the burden we place on children rises.” Advocates seeking increased investment in children face serious structural and political barriers. As Children’s Budget 2019 and the reports by the Urban Institute and CRFB illustrate, children are not faring well. Unlike other populations, children do not vote. Children do not contribute to political campaigns. Children do not operate political action committees (PACs). And, children do not run powerful advocacy groups that can demand political change on their behalf. Therefore, children lack political power, meaning data is fundamental to making the case for policy changes or improvements. First Focus on Children: Children’s Budget 2019 3 The data and facts present a compelling case as to how the federal budget process shortchanges children. The alarming picture painted in the pages that follow will get worse over the next decade unless something changes. In a landscape where the president is openly pushing for more military spending, a border wall, and cuts to numerous programs of importance to children,6 child advocates must make the case for: (1) How children have already been shortchanged in the federal budget; (2) W hy policymakers should not cut investments in children even further; (3) Why the status quo is harmful to children in and of itself because federal investments in kids are projected to decline even further; and therefore, (4) T he federal budget process requires proactive changes to prevent it from further shortchanging children. In an effort to achieve better investments and outcomes for children, more than 80 organizations have come together on a cross-sector basis to form the Children’s Budget Coalition.7 Through this Coalition, child advocates have committed to working together to raise attention around how the federal budget is shortchanging our children, both overall and within individual programs. As Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro points out, “The targeted investments and interventions we make now will make a lifetime of difference for the children they reach.”8 The fact is that money matters. According to a study entitled “Safety Net Investments in Children” by Hilary Hoynes and Diane Whitmore Schnazenbach for the National Bureau of Economic Research: …there are strong returns across the cash, tax based, near cash and health insurance programs that we examine, with potentially larger impacts for the most disadvantaged children. These consistent findings imply that there are substantial potential social and individual benefits from spending on children and their families.9 Investing in children and families works, and failing to do so is harmful. As the authors explain: Any cuts to current programs that will reduce resources going to children would have direct, negative impacts on children in both the short- and long-term. 4 First Focus on Children: Children’s Budget 2019 “The targeted investments and interventions we make now will make a lifetime of difference for the children they reach.” —Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro This is not to say that First Focus on Children simply supports writing a blank check. For example, we have long supported PAYGO rules10 to ensure that new spending or tax cuts are paid for, and we supported a $6 billion cost-saving extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 2017 and 2018. Furthermore, First Focus on Children has worked diligently in a variety of coalitions to arrive at evidence‑based and cost‑effective policy solutions for children.11 Defending the status quo is not neutral. It is taking a position to leave children worse off in the long‑term. We can and must do better by our children, who are the future of our country. — Bruce Lesley President, First Focus on Children 1. C ara Baldari. “Despite Strong Economy, Census Data Shows that Child Poverty Remains High,” First Focus on Children, 13 September 2018, https://firstfocus.org/blog/despite-strong-economy-census-data-shows-that-child-poverty-remains-high. 2. M ichael McLaughlin and Mark R. Rank. “Estimating the Economic Costs of Child Poverty in the United States,” Social Work Research 42:2 (June 2018), https://academic.oup.com/swr/article/42/2/73/4956930. 3. Dyaln Matthews. “Budgets are moral documents, and Trump’s is a moral failure,” Vox, 16 March 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and- politics/2017/3/16/14943748/trump-budget-outline-moral. 4. J ulia B. Isaacs, Cary Lou, Heather Hahn, Joycelyn Ovalle, and C. Eugene Steuerle. “Kids’ Share 2018: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2017 and Future Expenditures,” The Urban Institute, Oct. 2018,https://www.urban.org/research/publication/kids-share- 2018-report-federal-expenditures-children-through-2017-and-future-projections. 5. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), “Budgeting for the Next Generation: Does the Budget Process Prioritize Children?” 16 Aug. 2018, http://www.crfb.org/papers/budgeting-next-generation-does-budget-process-prioritize-children. 6. John Monsif. “Dozens of Children’s Groups Call Trump’s FY 18 Budget Harmful to Kids,” First Focus on Children, 23 May 2017, https://firstfocus.org/blog/dozens-of-childrens-groups-call-trumps-fy-18-budget-harmful-to-kids. See also, Bruce Lesley. “Trump Budget Fails to Live Up to Its Rhetoric for Children,” 12 Feb. 2017, https://medium.com/voices4kids/trump-budget-fails-to-live-up-to-its-words- for-children-29cc7546a8af and Michelle Dalliafor and Rachel Merker. “Fact Sheet: Impact of the President’s 2017 Budget on Children,” First Focus on Children, Feb. 2018, https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Fact-Sheet-Presidents-2019-Budget.pdf. 7. C hildren’s Budget Coalition. “Letter to Congress: On Appropriations,” 8 May 2018, https://www.childrensbudget.org/correspondence/. 8. R osa DeLauro. “Investing in our children is investing in our future,” The Hill, 16 Jul, 2012, http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/ education/238243-investing-in-our-children-is-investing-in-our-future. 9. Hilary Hoynes and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach. “Safety Net Investments in Children,” National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 24594 (May 2018), http://www.nber.org/papers/w24594. 10. T ax Policy Center. “Briefing Center,” https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-paygo. According to the Tax Policy Center, “PAYGO, which stands for ‘pay-as-you-go,’ is a budget rule requiring that (using current law as the baseline) tax cuts as well as increases in entitlement and other mandatory spending must be covered by tax increases or cuts in mandatory spending. It does not apply to discretionary spending (spending that is controlled through the appropriations process).” 11. Karen Howard. “Home Visiting Programs Work: Here’s the Proof,” The Chronicle of Social Change, 22 Aug. 2016, https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/opinion/home-visiting-programs-work-heres-the-proof and Teresa Wiltz. “When Trump signed spending bill, he signed into law a huge overhaul of foster care,” USA TODAY, 5 May 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/05/05/ foster-care-family-first-prevention-services-act-trump/573560002/. See also, Ron Haskins and Greg Margolis. Show Me the Evidence: Obama’s Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Policy, Brookings Institution Press, 2015. First Focus on Children: Children’s Budget 2019 5 A Successful 2020 Decennial Census: Count All Children Mandated by the Constitution, the federal government conducts a count of the country’s entire population every 10 years. Preparation activities for the 2020 decennial census have been underway for years. This spring the census web site went live and additional activities such as canvassing and continued dissemination of information are planned throughout the summer. April 1, 2020 marks Census Day; prior to that date, the public will receive an invitation to participate in the census and will be able to respond online, by mail, or by phone. After that, non-response follow-up interviews initiate in May 2020 and continue through July 2020. The census director will deliver apportionment counts to the president at the end of 2020. The goal of the census is to count every person, regardless of citizenship status, in all our communities once and only once, and collect basic information about them in a secure, convenient, and confidential manner. A fair, accurate, and comprehensive census is immensely important because the data determines our congressional reapportionment, guides state and local government representation, and impacts the equitable distribution of hundreds of billions of federal dollars. First conducted in 1790, the census data informs decision‑makers at all levels of government and impacts a wide range of policies, including education, health care, and infrastructure; the information also influences private sector investments contributing to communities’ economic development and employment opportunities for the next decade. Given the importance and far-reaching impact of the decennial census, it is seriously troubling that we consistently fail to accurately count children. Children, especially children of color, have the highest net undercount of any age group. Alarmingly, this problem continues to grow. The net undercount for young children has been increasing since 1980, with the census missing more than two million young children in 2010.1 At the same time we have witnessed continued improvements for the accounting of adults. With child poverty remaining a persistent problem and well over a million children experiencing homelessness each year, many children live in conditions that make it more likely the census will miss them. In particular, the census is especially likely to miss children under the age of five if they live in complex or multi-family homes, live temporarily with others, live with grandparents, are poor, move frequently, are children of color, or are linguistically isolated. This historic and escalating undercount of children needs to be corrected because children surely deserve equal government representation and access to vital resources. We must do better in 2020 and overcome this long-term disparity facing our nation’s youngest. Additionally, there is mounting concern that the 2020 census will miss many immigrant families and their children. Distrust of some federal agencies continues to swell in many communities, stemming largely from the current administration’s aggressive and cruel immigration enforcement tactics and policies. One policy proposal in particular that has jeopardized the accurate count of children in immigrant families is the administration’s push to include a citizenship question in this census’ questionnaire. Although the Supreme Court formally struck down this proposal in June, forcing the administration to remove it from the 2020 questionnaire, the damage is already done with respect to the chilling effect stemming from the proposal. Coupled with this chilling effect, other hostile policies and actions towards immigrants likely will result in a dramatically depressed participation rate from immigrant and mixed-status families who fear negative repercussions from revealing their citizenship status. For the first time, the 2020 census will be conducted online. While phone and paper responses remain an option, the online delivery presents new challenges for the Census Bureau, including unreliable broadband 6 First Focus on Children: Children’s Budget 2019