Budget fight endangers children
In response to the government shutdown that began at midnight, First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley released the following statement:
“Budget fights are not new, and neither are the shutdowns they sometimes cause. We fight about budgets because they are where values become visible — and sadly, in this current fight, children have been largely invisible.
Hundreds of federal programs help keep our nation’s children healthy, fed, housed, in their classrooms, and cared for in all the ways children must be cared for. Programs such as WIC, which provides fresh fruit and vegetables to babies and moms, and SNAP and school lunches, which keep low-income children nourished, have limited contingency funds and could halt support in the very near future. And if the Administration goes through with its plans to use the shutdown as a way to further slash the federal workforce, it would likely become even more difficult for government agencies to effectively carry out their missions of supporting children and families.
Too often, when lawmakers negotiate budgets they take from the children first. We urge Congress to take the opposite approach: Now, and at all critical decision points in the future, we ask Congress and the Administration to be guided by what is best for kids. To maintain the infrastructure that is so vital to their support. And to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at delivering full-year spending bills that do right by kids. We are asking them to value children. And to let their budgets reflect that.”
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