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A presentation delivered by the Children's Defense Fund - California on the how the budget impacts children in California.
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FEDERAL ISSUES IMPACTING CHILDREN
January 2014Michele [email protected] AssociateChildren’s Defense Fund – California
www.childrensdefense.org/soac
Children in the Federal Budget
Source: First Focus, Children’s Budget, 2013
Sequestration/Automatic Cuts
$1.2 trillion in automatic cuts – $110 billion in cuts per year for the next decade – a 9% annual cut
Split evenly between domestic and defense spending
Exempted programs: Medicaid, Pell Grants, TANF (welfare), food stamps & Social Security
Affected programs: Education, Head Start, public health, subsidized housing
Government Shutdown
After Congress failed to enact legislation appropriating funds for FY 2014, the federal government entered a shutdown on Oct. 1
Ended after 16 days with an interim appropriations bill Allowed federal spending at 2013 levels through
early 2014 Extended debt limit and funding for TANF, child
care and SNAP through early 2014 Made no changes to the benefits or timeline of
the Affordable Care Act
December Budget Deal
2-year, bipartisan budget that set overall discretionary spending levels for FY 2014 & 2015
Replaced $63 billion of sequestration cuts (evenly split between defense and non-defense spending) with alternative savings measures
Not included Reduction to sequestration cuts FY2016-21 Tax reform Extension of federal unemployment benefits
Omnibus Spending Bill
$1.1 trillion spending bill for Fiscal Year 2014 – aggregates all 12 regular appropriations bills
Signed by President Obama on Jan. 17 Eases some of the cuts imposed by
sequestration (but not all of them) and provides some money for new priorities
Early Education in the Omnibus $1 billion (13%) increase for Head Start to
restore funds cut by the sequester and include a COLA Includes $500 million for Early Head Start expansion
and Early Head Start-Child Care partnerships $250 million for competitive grant program for
states to provide preschool to low-income families
$154 million increase for Child Care and Development Block Grant to replace sequester cuts and increase funding – 22,000 more children
Key Elements in Omnibus
Restores $625 million in sequestration cuts to Title I education funding (still $103 million short of pre-sequester levels)
Exempts most federal health programs from cuts Increases funding for mental health services Funding for President Obama’s gun violence
reduction plan Grants to help students get access to mental health
services Funding for background check system Resources for school safety initiative
Unemployment Insurance
Federal unemployment insurance provides benefits for the long-term unemployed after they exhaust their state benefits (26 weeks) – average benefit = $260/week
Congress let federal unemployment benefits expire at the end of 2013 – 1.3 million lost benefits, and another 3.6 million will be affected in the next year
Efforts to extend benefits have been unsuccessful
SNAP (Food Stamps) Cuts
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – serves 48 million, including 21 million children (2.3 million California children)
Benefits for almost all recipients were cut in Nov. 2013 - $29/month cut for a family of 3; $5 billion/year cut
Republican-controlled House bill included $39 billion in cuts to SNAP over 10 years
Congress is nearing agreement on a Farm Bill that will likely include a $9 billion cut to SNAP over 10 years – will come before conference committee soon
Upcoming Budget Battles
In February, Congress will need to extend the federal debt limit
FY2015 spending bills – development to start in the spring after President Obama offers his budget proposal
Legislation
Strong Start for America’s Children
Introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), and Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY)
Grants to states to provide high-quality preschool to 4 year olds from families below 200% FPL, with a state match States can use up to 20% to improve quality States can use up to 15% for care for infants and toddlers
States would sub-grant to local education agencies or community early childhood providers that meet quality standards
Grants to Early Head Start agencies to partner with child care providers to expand quality programs for children 0-3
Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Reauthorization
Bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill to reauthorize CCDBG for the first time in 17 years
Voted out of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee – but no further movement
Would require background checks of providers, increase the set-aside for improving quality and strengthen health and safety requirements
Additional Resources
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities www.cbpp.org
First Focus www.firstfocus.net Center for Law and Social Policy
www.clasp.org Coalition on Human Needs
www.chn.org
