Government Spending on Babies is Not Meeting Their Needs, Say Advocates

(StatePoint) Early experiences during the prenatal period and first three years after birth shape brain development and the development of all other systems in the body — with substantial effects on learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. Unfortunately, there is a great discrepancy between the rising costs of raising young children and the level of federal government investment in them. An annual analysis from the bipartisan nonprofit First Focus on Children reveals that in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, only 1.59% of all federal spending went toward supporting children under 3. The report also makes clear that underfunding is part of a years-long trend: From FY 2021 to FY 2025, the share of federal spending on babies fell nearly 20% — from 1.98% of the federal budget to just 1.59%. This decline was driven by the expiration of important child-centered programs, such as the fully refundable Child Tax Credit, the expanded Child Care and Development Block Grant, and the Child Care Stabilization Fund. The year ahead does not promise to turn things around. President Trump’s FY 2026 budget proposal would cut discretionary spending on babies by an additional 17% adjusted for inflation, and the reconciliation package passed by Congress this summer slashes more than $60 billion from babies’ Medicaid health care services over the next decade and more than $13 billion from their share of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which feeds roughly 16 million children. Together, Medicaid and SNAP account for nearly half of all federal spending on infants, babies and toddlers, so these historic cuts disproportionately impact them.