Monday’s inauguration launched a brand new déjà vu of challenges to the health and general well-being of the nation’s children. One of the most dangerous — and overlooked — among these is the more than $500 billion in cuts proposed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
And for what? To fund tax cuts that will enrich corporations and feather the nests and yachts of billionaires (like the ones running the Department of Government Efficiency).
This proposal is egregious, even if we ignore for a moment that children make up nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population but receive less than 9% of our annual federal investment.
The U.S. national investment in children fell in FY 2024 for the third straight year, according to Children’s Budget 2024, dropping 6% to just 8.87% of the total federal budget. The new disinvestments proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency would include:
- $35.766 billion in support offered to veterans caring for dependent children
- $26.445 billion in education funding for K-12 students
- $12.272 billion in funding for Head Start and Early Head Start
- $10.688 billion for children from Tenant-Based Housing Assistance
- $8.746 billion from the Child Care and Development Block Grant
- $1.839 billion in funding for children’s health initiatives at the National Institutes of Health, including childhood cancer initiatives and environmental health research
- $1.808 billion (at minimum) in international support for children
- $ 805 million in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
- $417.7 million in Juvenile Justice and Safety programs
- $388.7 million in funding for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Youth Training Programs
First Focus on Children shared the report this week in a letter to tech moguls Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who launched the Department of Government Efficiency.
Read the full report and the letter.