Kids would shoulder 20% of all “efficiency” cuts

A new analysis finds that cuts proposed by President Trump’s efficiency advisors would drain more than $100 billion dollars from children’s programs, hobbling child care, education funding, housing assistance, cancer research and other critical services.

The Department of Government Efficiency, launched by tech moguls Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has proposed cutting more than $500 billion in spending by eliminating programs that Congress has not formally extended but continues to support through annual spending decisions. In a report released this week, First Focus on Children finds that more than $101 billion — or nearly 20% of the total cuts — would come from so-called “unauthorized” programs that provide essential support for wide swaths of the population, such as veterans and low-income children.

“This country already underinvests in its children,” said First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley. “Children make up almost one-quarter of our population, and yet we devote less than 9% of the total federal budget to their well-being each year. And now newly installed bureaucrats are coming after even that insufficient amount, which goes to kids living in poverty and kids with cancer. And for what? To give tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest Americans. We should not sacrifice our children to feather the nests and yachts of billionaires.”

The U.S. national investment in children fell in FY 2024 for the third straight year, according to Children’s Budget 2024, dropping 6% to just 8.87% of the total federal budget. The new disinvestments proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency would include:

  • $35.766 billion in support offered to veterans caring for dependent children
  • $26.445 billion in education funding for K-12 students
  • $12.272 billion in funding for Head Start and Early Head Start
  • $10.688 billion for children from Tenant-Based Housing Assistance
  • $8.746 billion from the Child Care and Development Block Grant
  • $1.839 billion in funding for children’s health initiatives at the National Institutes of Health, including childhood cancer initiatives and environmental health research
  • $1.808 billion (at minimum) in international support for children
  • $ 805 million in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
  • $417.7 million in Juvenile Justice and Safety programs
  • $388.7 million in funding for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Youth Training Programs

First Focus on Children shared the report this week in a letter to Musk and Ramaswamy.

Read the full report and the letter.