Babies in the Budget 2026

Babies Face Chronic Underfunding by Lawmakers

Just 1.67% of the federal budget goes to babies

The federal government spends just $1.67 on children under 3 for every $100 it spends elsewhere, according to Babies in the Budget 2026, a more than 18% decline from fiscal year (FY) 2021.

The share of federal spending on babies dropped to 1.67% in FY 2026, according to Babies in the Budget 2026, a sharp decline from the more than 2% devoted to children under 3 in FY 2021. The report, released by First Focus on Children, also finds that federal spending on babies would drop to just $1.61 for every $100 under President Trump’s proposed FY 2027 budget.

First Focus on Children’s annual Babies in the Budget report analyzes the share of federal spending devoted to children under 3 across roughly 150 government programs.

Findings in Babies in the Budget 2026 include:

• The nation’s disinvestment in babies is accelerating. The share of federal investment in babies has fallen 18.5% since FY 2021. The cuts passed in H.R. 1 — especially to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which account for roughly half of all investment in children under 3 — are expected to contribute to an ongoing declining share of federal spending in the coming years. H.R. 1 cuts roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid and $200 billion from SNAP over the next decade.
• The budget process is stacked against babies. Programs that benefit older Americans — Social Security and Medicare — are mostly mandatory, meaning they adjust automatically as enrollment and costs rise, protected by law and insulated from the annual scramble of appropriations. More than half of all programs that serve babies are discretionary, meaning Congress must review and reevaluate them every year, making them more susceptible to budget cuts and limits.
• On the discretionary side of the budget, defense spending is increasingly crowding out spending on babies. Babies receive just 1% of all federal discretionary spending. Defense programs receive 52% of discretionary spending.