First Focus Campaign for Children today urged the Biden Administration to fulfill its historic commitment to children by working to pass a comprehensive, intact Build Back Better bill and to begin leading through executive action.

“Build Back Better is a children’s bill— and needs to remain so,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus Campaign for Children. “Its provisions – when enacted together – will bring transformative, long-lasting, positive, and popular change for children. It cannot be dismantled. It cannot be cherry-picked. We are urging the president to remain steadfast in his commitment to children to secure much-needed change and provide a bright, fair future for all of the country’s children beyond his tenure. “

In a letter sent today, First Focus Campaign for Children called on the Administration to rename its signature bill the “American Families Plan” to better capture its core focus, and to retain provisions including the improved Child Tax Credit, affordable child care, and early learning, free universal pre-school, four weeks of paid family and medical leave, the permanent extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and all of its other child-focused elements. Find the full list of recommended provisions in the letter here.

Noting that the impact of the omicron variant and expiration of advance CTC payments has left families feeling defeated and unheard, First Focus Campaign for Children urged President Biden to take 10 executive actions on behalf of children, including

For a full list of recommended priorities for the Administration, please see: The Promises We Must Make to Our Children: Recommendations to the Biden-Harris Transition Team 

For a fact sheet of child-related provisions in the Build Back Better Act (H.R.5376), please see: Build Back Better For Children