Children's Budget 2026
Our national investment in children fell in FY 2026 for the fifth straight year
The United States government failed children once again in 2026. For the fifth straight year, investments in children declined, both in terms of total funding and as a share of federal spending.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, the share of spending on children fell to a mere 8.28%, meaning that for every $100 spent by the federal government, just $8.28 went toward meeting the needs of children. The share of spending on children has not been this low since the previous Trump Administration, when the share of spending on children also declined for four straight years, dropping 25% between FY 2017 and FY 2020 to just 7.6%.
