Today, First Focus Campaign for Children, joined by 50 organizations dedicated to the well-being and protection of children, sent the following letter to Representative Morgan McGarvey to express our support for the legislation he authored — the Child Safety and Well-Being Act of 2024, which would take the critical step of establishing an independent Children’s Commission tasked with providing research, trends, and recommendations to Congress and the executive branch on matters of importance to children and marginalized youth.
Excerpt from the letter:
Children and youth represent our future, yet they remain among the most vulnerable and underrepresented groups in our society. They cannot vote and do not have powerful cadres of lobbyists advocating on their behalf. Consequently, their needs and concerns are often invisible and overlooked in policy decisions that profoundly impact their lives. This legislation aims to rectify this oversight by ensuring that children’s voices are heard and their best interests and well-being are prioritized in federal policymaking and better coordinated across ALL federal departments and agencies – from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Justice Department, the Department of Agriculture, and Environmental Protection Agency to the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.