Children Lose With House Budget
March 12, 2013
Washington — The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus expressed concern that the House Budget Committee’s proposed federal fiscal year 2014 budget resolution puts billions in federal funding for critical children’s initiatives at risk. A review of materials released by the committee shows that the proposal puts children’s health, child nutrition, education, child abuse and neglect prevention and response, and other priority children’s initiatives on the chopping block.
The draft budget resolution makes billions in cuts to a wide range of children’s initiatives over ten years:
- Children’s health: $750 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which allocates 20 percent of funds to children’s health, resulting in a $150 billion cut to children’s health
- Child nutrition: $122 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which allocates 47 percent of funds to child nutrition, resulting in a $57 billion cut to child nutrition (Note: because the committee’s budget proposal did not provide specific details on SNAP cuts, this analysis assumes the same approach as the committee’s federal fiscal year 2013 budget resolution)
- Education and other non-defense discretionary investments: At least $750 billion in cuts to the “non-defense discretionary” budget. This estimate reflects the fact that the proposal reduces overall discretionary spending by $250 billion, while increasing defense discretionary spending by $500 billion. Applying the cuts proportionately across the non-defense discretionary budget would result in $84 billion in cuts to a wide range of children’s initiatives (on top of billions in cuts already imposed during the past two years), including