2021 Children’s Budget
Key Takeaways from Children’s Budget 2021:
Share of federal spending on children increased largely due to aid in response to the pandemic and subsequent economic downturn. The pandemic spurred game-changing investments in programs that benefit children and families, and drove up the share of federal spending on children. An expansion of the Child Tax Credit, increased food aid, and the economic impact payments offer just a few examples of how emergency federal assistance has positively affected children since the pandemic began. set the standard by using child impact statements and encouraging states and localities to do so as well. and focus on the needs of children. Policymakers must consider not only how their approach to international assistance programs and funding affects our economic standing or military standing, but also how effectively it addresses the needs of the world’s children. Child impact statements provide a mechanism to evaluate foreign assistance and policy’s impact on children.
Despite this increase, children are at a disadvantage in the budget process. Spending on children is disproportionately discretionary, often temporary, capped, and lacks both built-in growth and dedicated revenue. Discretionary programs by design undergo annual review, and while regular review during the annual appropriations process could be helpful to identify additional needs for programmatic improvements, in recent times, it often leads to funding uncertainty, slower growth and more frequent cuts as passage of appropriations bills lag behind the fiscal calendar.
Less than one cent of every federal dollar goes to children internationally. Children make up about 30% of the world’s population, yet the U.S. devoted just .08% of the entire federal budget to children abroad in FY 2021. Only 7.6% of the U.S. international budget is devoted to children. Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, children around the globe continue to experience dire hardship. They have lost access to education, food, health care, and other life necessities. Reported rates of child labor, child marriage, sexual exploitation, violence, child abuse and neglect have increased.
Racial, social, economic, geographic and other inequities continue to drive the unfair distribution of federal resources. Policymakers must do more to not only increase resources to children overall, but to address the systemic racial inequities that prevent equal access to federal resources for all children. Children of color continue to experience poverty and food insecurity at higher rates than white children, and greater challenges to accessing quality health care and educational support.
Now is the time to keep the progress going. The increases detailed in the Children’s Budget Book 2021 represent a temporary solution to the long-term challenges children and families face, which have been exacerbated by the health crisis and its economic chaos. Congress must address the structural disadvantages imposed on children’s programs by the budget process. In addition, lawmakers must continue to improve outcomes for children by building on the investments of the American Rescue Plan and the policy lessons learned during the dual public health and economic crises. The impact of emergency aid — which helped reduce child poverty by more than 20% in 2020, even in the midst of a pandemic — illustrates what lawmakers can achieve on behalf of children when they have the political will to do so. Now is the time to continue prioritizing children’s needs and invest in all aspects of children’s lives. Our treatment of children today will determine our future.
