Experts urge Congress to work for kids

First Focus Campaign for Children today released its 2023 Agenda for America’s Childrenwhich outlines the steps the 118th Congress must take to secure the future of our children — and the nation.

“The 118th Congress has an opportunity — and an obligation — to keep the country and its children moving forward,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley. “Smart investments over the last two years staunched the crisis in children’s health care, hunger, homelessness, education, and general well-being. And now lawmakers face a choice: Continue the divisive, anti-child policies poised to impoverish our nation’s children and derail the economy, or embrace an Agenda for America’s Children that nurtures healthy, productive, educated citizens and the bright future they promise.”

To put America’s children and our economy on the road to health and prosperity, lawmakers in the 118th Congress must adopt an agenda that:

  • Invests in public education to overcome teacher shortages, reverse pandemic learning loss, and advance our democracy by nurturing engaged citizens
  • Protects children from gun violence at home, at school, and in their communities
  • Reverses the child mortality crisis driving the unprecedented reduction in American lifespan
  • Applies the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that all children have food, shelter, medical care, and other life necessities
  • Creates affordable, high-quality child care and early education programs that prepare children for life and allow parents and caregivers to fuel the country’s economy
  • Fights climate change and secures the environment to protect kids now and in the future
  • Centers children and their needs in all policy and budget decisions

Parents want this agenda. Voters support this agenda. Children need this agenda.

View the complete Children’s Agenda for the 118th Congress at this link.