How Kids Fare in the
President’s 2009 Budget

As President Bush released his fiscal year 2009 budget, First Focus criticized his proposal as once again failing to make children a priority.

Overall, the budget makes cuts totaling $2.8 billion to discretionary programs that impact children, a 3 percent decline from last year’s federal budget. First Focus released the following analysis of the budget and its impact on children:

Children in President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2009 Budget
Unfortunately, the President’s 2009 budget request continues past trends, with investments in children making up an increasingly small part of the federal portfolio. In 2008, the federal government will spend about $91 billion on discretionary programs that impact children. The President’s proposal slashes that federal investment in children by almost $2.8 billion. If enacted, children’s programs would suffer cuts in almost every area.

Child Health, Social Services, & Child Welfare Programs:
Under President Bush’s budget, investments in children’s health programs would decline 5.7 percent. As with other program areas, discretionary spending on child welfare would drop substantially, with funding for programs that aim to improve child welfare reduced more than a third.

Out of the $2 billion that was cut from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), more than $1.3 billion comes out of programs that disproportionately affect children. This includes the a net loss of over $1 billion for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) – the division of HHS responsible for programs that promote the health, development and well-being of children and their families.

While reports regarding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) have reflected a favorable increase in funding at 19.2 billion over five years, this number is actually several billion dollars short of what is needed to maintain current services to children presently enrolled. Moreover, the president cuts off coverage for children in families earning over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level – about $42,400 for a family of four - in more than half of the nation's states. This is in addition to the $17 billion cut from the Medicaid program, some of which fall directly upon children.

In addition, the President has included a $500 million cut to the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), which funds 29 different human services in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In many states it is a key source of support for child welfare services dealing with neglect, abuse, or the exploitation of children, in addition to services that provide daycare for children, protective services for children, adoption, case management, health-related services, transportation, foster care, substance abuse, housing, and many other social services that affect children and their families.

One of the most critical of cuts proposed by the President was the elimination of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), totaling $653 million. CSBG provides funds to states for programs, services, and activities assisting low-income families lift themselves out of poverty.

Cuts to the Health Resources Services Administration alone total $1.1 billion, with eliminations to important programs such as Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education, Emergency Medical Services for Children, and the Universal Newborn Hearing program. Other programs, such as Healthy Start, Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, and Autism Research received no increase in funding.

The budget cuts funding for foster care payments. As it stands, many children are not eligible for federal foster care assistance, and each year, fewer children qualify for aid. In addition, receiving no new funding was the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention program and the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program. The Child Abuse Prevention program provides support for projects that seek to prevent child abuse and neglect, while PSSF funds services that prevent the unnecessary separation of children from their families, improve the quality of care and services to children, and ensure permanency for children through their parents, adoption, or another permanent living arrangement.

Education:
The President has proposed eliminating $3.3 billion by cutting 47 education programs, resulting in a net loss of $1.5 billion in programs affecting children under the age of 18. This includes a $300 million cut from 21st Century Community Learning Centers – an after-school program that provides academic opportunities for children, particularly those students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools. A cut of this magnitude would result in the removal of 300,000 kids from after-school programs this year.

Funding for the Even Start program was also eliminated. Even Start is the only literacy program in the Department of Education that serves children under age three, a period of rapid language development for all children.

Over $1 billion was cut from career and technical education programs, critical for giving students the tools they need to earn an adequate living. And the president’s budget maintains level funding for child care programs for the seventh consecutive year. The administration projects this virtually stagnant funding will result in 200,000 children loosing child care by fiscal year 2009.

Child Safety/Juvenile Justice:
President Bush’s budget drastically reduces federal investment in our children’s safety as well. In fact, he proposes slicing that investment in half.

The budget would level juvenile justice programs as funded through the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), the most critical federal legislation affecting young people in juvenile justice systems across the country. The JJDPA funds the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the federal agency through which the federal government sets standards for juvenile justice systems at the state and local level. The JJDPA supports states in the development and implementation of prevention and intervention programs to protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and provide treatment and rehabilitative services tailored to the needs of juveniles and their families.

Sadly, despite the recall of millions of children’s toys deemed hazardous this year alone, the president’s budget provides no increase in funding for the consumer product safety commission. Increased resources are necessary for the hiring of additional staff and the renovation of antiquated lead-testing facilities. These changes are imperative to assure American parents that the federal government is being proactive in protecting the health and well-being of their children.

Further, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget was slashed by 62 percent, including the elimination of the $93 million Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, which provides federal resources to fill funding gaps in programs dealing with leading causes of death and disability, in addition to rapid responses to emerging health issues, including outbreaks of food borne infections and water borne diseases. In addition, funding for poison control centers has been cut by $16 million – more than half the program’s current budget. These centers implement a comprehensive system for the delivery of high quality poison control information to those who require it, including a national toll-free phone number. This funding has a direct impact on the health and well-being of America’s children, as over half of poisonings occur in children younger than age five.

Kids Have Not Faired Well Over the Past Five Years
From 2004 to 2008 federal spending on children rose by only 1.1 percent, in real terms. At the same time spending on children was growing by a meager one percent, total federal spending was increasing at ten times that rate, pushing children back even further.

The picture for just discretionary spending has been even bleaker. From 2004 to 2008, the real value of federal discretionary spending on children has actually declined 6.7 percent.

Kids Get a Shrinking Share of Federal Spending
First Focus recently commissioned a report by the Urban Institute to detail how federal spending on children has changed over the past 45 years. The results were startling.

In 1960, the children’s share of federal domestic spending was 20.1 percent. In 2006, that share had declined to 15.4 percent, a 23.3 percent overall decline. Indeed, the Urban Institute report concluded that if present trends continue, the children’s share of the federal budget will decline further, to only 13.1 percent of overall domestic spending.