Bipartisan Advocacy Organization for Children says BBB Puts Kids Last

Leslie is joined by Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus on Children, a bipartisan advocacy organization working to make children the priority in federal policy and budget decisions.

Bruce explains how the newly passed 'Big Beautiful Bill' "chooses billionaires over babies, and puts the nation’s children in unprecedented peril."

Here are just a few ways that the new law will hurt the nation’s children: 

Cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid and CHIP: Medicaid and CHIP provide health insurance to over 37 million children in the United States and Medicaid covers nearly 40% of births. H.R.1 includes the largest funding cuts to these programs in their history and creates administrative burdens, such as lock-out periods and work requirements. 

Defunds the largest child anti-hunger program: One-in-five children experience food insecurity. This bill cuts food assistance by cutting more than $200 billion from SNAP and places a larger cost share burden on states. This cost shift could cause states to end their programs or limit enrollment. Advocates argue that losing SNAP benefits could also impact free school meals, further risking a rise in child hunger.

Leaves children behind in tax policy: This legislation offers an inadequate Child Tax Credit. While some will see an increased credit amount, the increase still fails to keep pace with inflation. Even worse, the new structure keeps more than 20 million children from receiving the full credit and blocks 2.6 million kids from receiving any credit at all.

Undermines public schools: H.R.1 creates a new tax benefit for wealthy donors that jeopardizes the future of our public schools. This education voucher tax credit will offer 2-3x the benefit of other non-profit donations, incentivizing donations over other organizations. It is important to note research shows vouchers do not improve academic outcomes and disproportionately benefit families who already send their children to private schools.

Threatens the child care workforce: There is already a child care shortage in the country. H.R.1 will make it harder to recruit and train new child care professionals by prohibiting the use of federal student loans for sectors that do not earn over the median high school graduate salary. We must further invest in this profession and work to increase pay for providers, not create additional barriers to building a strong child care workforce.

Increases funding for family separation: H.R. 1 dramatically raises funding for immigration enforcement. This funding will lead to increased family separation and detention. These immigration practices disrupt entire communities and are known to create childhood trauma, adversely affecting child health and development.

Cancels efforts to address the climate crisis: H.R. 1 eliminates investments in solar and renewable energy leaving our children to deal with greater effects of climate change in the future. This measure comes as kids are experiencing adverse environmental health effects and natural disasters.

Forces kids to shoulder our ballooned national debt: H.R. 1 drives up the national debt by $3 trillion in order to give tax breaks to billionaires and industries like gun manufacturers. This bill expects our children to shoulder the cost of these tax breaks when they become adults while stripping them of essential services today. 

The website for First Focus on Children is FirstFocus.org and their handle on BlueSky is @FirstFocus.bsky.social.  Bruce's handle there is @BruceLesley.bsky.social.