Family Economics
Last year, 28 million American children lived in low-income families. Unfortunately, children lacking economic security at home face many disadvantages ranging from poorer health to lower achievement in school. For this reason, First Focus believes that federal investments in children, particularly investments that help lift them out of poverty, are essential to improving their health and ensuring their success in the future.
First Focus strives to make children a priority in the federal budget not only in health care and education but also through initiatives like tax credits, nutritional supports and child support enforcement.
Tax Credits
Several federal tax credits with broad, bipartisan support help address the economic needs of America’s families. These include the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Child Tax Credit and the Child and Dependent Care Credit. Although these credits can make a dramatic difference in a poor family’s budget, they often go unclaimed, largely due to unnecessarily complicated eligibility requirements. They combat poverty by offsetting the costs of raising children and providing proven work incentives. In fact, President Ronald Reagan called the EITC “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” moreNutritional Supports
The food stamp program, the cornerstone of federal nutritional assistance, is up for reauthorization as part of this year’s Farm Bill. More than half of the participants in the food stamp program are children, and nearly one in five children receive food stamp benefits. Unfortunately, there are still many children in the U.S. with unmet nutritional needs. It is essential that the families that qualify for this assistance receive it and that the benefit (now averaging just $1.05 per meal) be expanded this year after over a decade of declining in value. The links between nutrition and health are unquestionable, making this issue an imperative for First Focus.The National School Lunch Program is another vital nutritional support for children built on the understanding that poor health can result from child malnutrition. The program, in existence since 1946, provides low-cost or free nutritional lunches (and some afterschool snacks) to children in public and non-profit private schools. It is not up for reauthorization this year but will be monitored closely by the First Focus team as reauthorization approaches. more
Child Support Enforcement
Child Support Enforcement has broad bipartisan backing but lacks the public profile of most other federal programs that benefit children and was cut sharply in last year’s Deficit Reduction Act. First Focus is working to restore these cuts to a program that served 17.2 million children, collected $23 billion for families in 2005 and is widely regarded as one of the most cost- effective government programs, collecting $4.58 for each dollar spent. more
