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Obama Budget Delivers for Children
Press Release

April 15, 2013

Contact:
Ed Walz
(202) 657-0685 (office)

Washington – The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus today released a detailed analysis of President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget, confirming that the President’s budget prioritizes investments in children. The analysis also compares the President’s budget to plans passed last month by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, finding that the President’s proposal largely parallels the Senate plan and is much better for children than the House budget.

“President Obama’s budgets have consistently invested in kids, and his 2014 proposal again delivers for children,” said First Focus President Bruce Lesley.

Compared to federal fiscal year 2013, the President’s budget invests an additional $9.1 billion (12.4 percent) in children overall. Looking specifically at discretionary spending, which spending not required by legal obligations like Social Security payments or interest payments on the national debt, the President’s budget allocates 7.2 percent to children’s initiatives. The First Focus analysis highlights specific investments including:

  • $2 billion (a 27 percent increase) in Head Start.
  • $2 billion (an 11 percent increase) in Tenant Based Rental Assistance.
  • $630 million (a 10 percent increase) in the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, & Children (WIC).
  • $335 million (a 210 percent increase) in the Unaccompanied Alien Child Program.
  • $16 million (a 164 percent increase) in the Healthy Homes Program.

The President’s Budget maintains critical investments in children’s nutrition, health, and anti-poverty tax credits that are targeted for deep cuts in the House-passed budget. The President’s proposal closely tracks the Senate budget on most key children’s priorities. The side-by-side comparison highlighted specific contrasts and areas of common ground:

  • Children’s health: Like the Senate budget, the President’s budget protects the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid, which provide health care for millions of children. The House budget turns Medicaid into a block grant, which would compromise care for children, and eliminates the Affordable Care Act’s protections for CHIP.
  • Child nutrition: The President’s budget and the Senate budget protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), both critical child nutrition lifelines. The House budget leaves “sequestration” budget cuts to WIC in place and turns SNAP into a block grant.
  • Education and other non-defense discretionary investments: Like the Senate budget, the President’s budget largely protects the “non-defense discretionary” component of the federal budget, which includes education, housing, child abuse and neglect prevention and response, child care, and other critical initiatives for children. The House budget extends sequestration cuts to such investments and expands their impact on children by more than $100 billion over 10 years.
  • Anti-Poverty Tax Credits: The President’s and the Senate budget make permanent improvements to the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, which with those improvements, lift more than five million children out of poverty every year. The House budget allows those improvements to expire in 2017.

“Like the Senate budget the President’s plan makes real fiscal progress, while recognizing that we can’t build a stronger tomorrow for children by denying them the things they need to succeed today,” said Lesley.

A centerpiece of the president’s budget is a detailed plan to implement a pre-Kindergarten (“pre-K”) proposal and make other investments in early childhood introduced during President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address. First Focus commended the plan’s emphasis on pre-K that is both high quality and affordable for every child, funding for 10 years home visiting initiatives that have proven highly effective in helping parents succeed as children’s first caregivers and teachers, expanding Head Start for children under the age of four, and a tobacco tax financing plan that generates revenue for these important investments while working to discourage teen smoking.

“In February, President Obama challenged the nation to ensure that no child is left behind from the start, and today the White House delivered a roadmap to get us there,” said First Focus President Bruce Lesley.

First Focus has released a detailed analysis of the President’s pre-K initiative, comparing it to related legislative proposals. The advocacy group will complete further analyses of the President’s budget as it impacts other specific children’s issues. Fact sheets on housing for children, child nutrition, education, early learning, and child welfare will be released as the Administration releases additional budget and policy details.

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First Focus is a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit www.firstfocus.net.

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