The United States government failed children once again in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. For the fourth straight year, investments in children declined, both in terms of total funding and as a share of federal spending.
Children’s Budget by the Numbers
- The share of federal spending on children fell from a high of 11.98% in 2021 to just 8.57% in FY 2025 — a more than 25% decline. Simply stated, this means that for every $100 spent by the federal government, just $8.57 went toward meeting the needs of children.
- Investments in children fell by 39.46% from FY 2021 to FY 2025 when adjusted for inflation.
- Under the FY 2025 Continuing Resolution, which flat funded much of the government, fiscal support for kids fell by 3.19% from the prior year, when adjusted for inflation.
- The President’s proposed FY 2026 budget would slash real discretionary spending on children by nearly 24%, dropping the share of discretionary spending on children to just 5.81% of all discretionary spending.
- Children in other parts of the world would also suffer under the Trump Administration cuts, which reduce the share of spending on children internationally to just 0.03% of total federal spending — or just 3 cents of every $100 spent by the federal government.
- These numbers represent the most drastic cuts to children’s funding since the previous Trump Administration, and more difficult and harmful cuts are forthcoming. The reconciliation package passed by Congress in June (H.R. 1) will cut an estimated $182 billion from children’s Medicaid health care services over the next decade, according to calculations in Children’s Budget 2025, and more than $80 billion in children’s food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
