President Trump mentioned children several times as he addressed a joint session of Congress this week. He talked about “protecting American children.” He said he wants to make them “healthy and strong.”
If he’s sincere, which is always a big “if”, First Focus on Children has a few important suggestions for making this happen.
- To protect them: Create an independent Children’s Commissioner, which would examine policy choices, issue reports, and make recommendations to Congress and federal agencies on ways to craft policy that acts in the best interest of children. A 2022 survey by Lake Research Partners showed that voters strongly support the creation of an independent Children’s Commissioner to improve oversight and “to investigate and make recommendations on ways to protect and improve the care and well-being of children” by a more than 2-to-1 margin (57-27%).
- To make them healthy: Protect Medicaid, which insures more than 40% of all the nation’s children. Make the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) permanent. The Children’s Health Insurance Program Permanency (CHIPP) Act, introduced in the 118th Congress, would ensure continuous access to affordable, high-quality, age-appropriate care for children, prevent disruptions to coverage that could increase the number of uninsured children, provide financial and health care security to families with children who have asthma, cancer and other chronic illnesses, and prevent lawmakers from continually using the program as a bargaining chip in negotiations. Enact the comprehensive health care agenda outlined in “Making America Healthy Again for Children,” a report from First Focus on Children that outlines ways to protect and enhance Medicaid and CHIP, improve infant and maternal health, upgrade pediatric emergency and cancer care, and use his position to address the systemic challenges facing children, from inadequate access to health care to the impacts of poverty, neglect, and inequality.
- To lift them out of poverty: Establish a fully refundable Child Tax Credit as part of the upcoming negotiations on extending the 2017 tax cuts. As currently structured, the Child Tax Credit leaves behind an estimated 18 million children per year whose parents make too little to qualify for the full credit. It is a federal policy that actively promotes child poverty.
- To give each and every child a chance to thrive: Maintain birthright citizenship. Ending birthright citizenship would increase the very bureaucracy that the Administration says it wants to trim, have long-term negative effects on the U.S. economy, and deplete the workforce needed to support programs such as Social Security and Medicare. “Citizenship is not merely an identity or status — it is foundational for accessing health care, nutrition, early education, housing, and many other services,” said First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley. “Creating bureaucratic obstacles risks delaying – or denying altogether – the support babies and children need at their most formative stages.”
President Trump and lawmakers have many other tools available to them for protecting our nation’s children and ensuring that each and every one of them has the chance to thrive. Find a comprehensive analysis of these tools in our Children’s Agenda for the 118th Congress.