Congressman Morgan McGarvey and Congresswoman Barbara Lee Lead Colleagues in Letter Urging Federal Agency Collaboration to Support Children and Families
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 14, 2024) – During National Children’s Week, Congressman McGarvey (KY-03) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) led 25 of their colleagues in a letter to the Biden Administration to support a “Cross-Agency Priority” (CAP) to coordinate policies, data, and other collaborative action across federal agencies to address child well-being.
“Our country’s future depends on the dignity of our youngest,” said Rep. McGarvey. “We must do everything in our power to ensure that federal agencies are working together to implement policies that address our children’s most pressing needs. From healthcare to tax policy, it’s important to have cross-agency collaboration so nothing slips through the cracks and our federal government continues to best serve the next generation.”
“In a country with nearly 13 million children living in poverty, our federal government must prioritize the dignity and well-being of children,” said Rep. Lee. “Complex policies impact the welfare of American children, and those policies are carried out by agencies ranging from HHS to DHS to the IRS. A Cross-Agency Priority on child well-being would assist public servants at these agencies and more in carrying out their missions through stronger communication, standardized metrics and performance indicators, and improved collaboration throughout federal agencies. I’m calling on the Office of Management and Budget to implement this CAP to ensure our children are taken care of.”
The letter is addressed to Director Shalanda Young of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and asks OMB to issue a “Cross-Agency Priority” (CAP) for children. A CAP is a mechanism to coordinate policies, data, and other action across federal agencies. It is used where collaboration is needed to tackle the complex nature of problems - the well-being of children is one pressing instance.
A November 2017 GAO Report on child well-being recommended that OMB include child well-being in their next set of CAP goals, but this recommendation has gone unfulfilled by OMB. With authority through the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, OMB can implement a CAP on child well-being through executive action.
“Every public policy — from health care to infrastructure to nutrition — has a children’s angle,” said Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus on Children. “But the very specific needs of children and the impact that policies have on their lives are often overlooked or ignored altogether throughout the budget process and when policy decisions are being made. Establishing a cross-agency priority for children will help the federal government recognize and address the interlocking issues that affect the lives of children with nearly every government decision. We are pleased that Reps. McGarvey and Lee, with the support of over 25 members of Congress, have urged the Office of Management and Budget to create a CAP to help protect the well-being of our nation’s children. We urge their fellow lawmakers to follow their lead during this Children's Week and beyond.”
“The pressing needs of children, including infants and toddlers, transcend the bounds of Agency lines. Establishing a Cross-Agency Priority on child well-being is a critical step to improve the work Federal Agencies and programs are doing to support young children and their families,” said Miriam Calderón, Chief Policy Officer at ZERO TO THREE. “According to the?State of Babies Yearbook: 2023, there are approximately 11 million children under the age of 3 in the United States – all experiencing brain growth and development at a pace more rapid than any other time of life. Eliminating barriers to cooperation and coordinating policies, data, and action across federal agencies to ensure babies and toddlers have all they need to thrive will have an outsized impact on a baby’s future development and success.”
The letter was signed by Reps. Morgan McGarvey, Barbara Lee, Alma Adams, Suzanne Bonamici, Jamaal Bowman, Julia Brownley, Tony Cárdenas, Judy Chu, Danny Davis, Mark DeSaulnier, Dwight Evans, Sylvia Garcia, Jimmy Gomez, Raúl Grijalva, Jonathan Jackson, Sheila Jackson Lee, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Zoe Lofgren, Seth Magainer, Betty McCollum, Jim McGovern, Wiley Nickel, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Katie Porter, Delia Ramirez, Rashida Tlaib, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
The letter is supported by: First Focus on Children, ZERO TO THREE, American Federation of Teachers, National Women's Law Center, UNICEF USA, Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, Child Labor Coalition, Bethany Christian Services, Child Welfare League of America, ChildFund International, Children's Advocacy Institute, Children's Funding Project, Coalition on Human Needs, Committee for Children, EDGE Consulting Partners, Education for All Coalition, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Family Centered Treatment Foundation, Family Promise, Family Voices, First Five Years Fund, Florida Policy Institute, Free the Slaves, Holt International, Media Voices for Children, National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Center for Families Learning, National Consumers League, National Family Support Network, National League for Nursing, Phoenix Zones Initiative, Prevent Blindness, Prevent Child Abuse America, Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky, Public Advocacy for Kids (PAK), Shine Global Inc., Start Early, Strategy for Humanity LLC, The Educare Network, The National Society of Leadership & Success DeVry University Southeast Chapter, Together for Girls, Vaccinate Your Family, and Women's Refugee Commission.
The full text of the letter is below:
Our government must center the dignity and well-being of children. Securing and zealously defending the economic, social, and human rights of the youngest among us is critical to ensuring justice today and success tomorrow. Unfortunately, compared to our peer nations, the U.S. performs poorly in terms of child poverty and other indicators of child well-being. The November 2017 GAO Report on Child Well-being said it best when it stated, “the long-term success of a nation depends in large part on how well families and society care for their children.” In line with the unfulfilled GAO recommendations included in that report, we write to ask that the Office of Management and Budget develop and implement a comprehensive “Cross-Agency Priority” on child well-being.
As you know, a “Cross-Agency Priority” or “CAP” is a mechanism to coordinate policies, data, and other action across federal agencies where collaboration is needed to tackle the complex nature of today’s problems. The well-being of children is one glaring instance. Currently, American social policy affecting children ranges anywhere from the Internal Revenue Service with the Child Tax Credit to the Department of Health and Human Services with the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The public servants in these various entities work hard to implement these programs with the dignity of children in mind. A CAP on child well-being would assist these public servants in carrying out their mission through streamlined communication, standardized metrics and performance indicators, and improved collaboration throughout federal agencies.
A CAP on child well-being is necessary and timely for a multitude of reasons. Notably, experts point out that federal agencies’ current lack of multidisciplinary coordination hampers their efforts to address child well-being. Today’s issues of mental health crises, climate change, and a thinly spread social safety net require a comprehensive and whole-of-government approach now more than ever. The lapse of the expanded Child Tax Credit and other COVID-19-era funds has increased the child poverty rate from 5.2 percent to 12.4 percent, the largest increase recorded in the data. These effects are especially heightened for Black, Hispanic, and Native American children. We absolutely cannot allow these tragedies to continue.
With authority through Public Law 111-352, the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, the Office of Management and Budget can implement a CAP on child well-being through executive action. According to experts, such a CAP could:
- Create standardized measures of well-being across federal agencies, programs, and actions to coordinate evaluation and responses.
- Encourage information-sharing across federal agencies to facilitate the creation of guidance, regulations, best practices, and technical assistance.
- Standardize data reporting and analysis and increase the reporting of information related to age to better understand the impact of policy on children.
- Coordinate and implement mechanisms to communicate with stakeholders and experts and to facilitate idea-sharing and policy formation with external groups.
Improved federal coordination, data evaluation, and policy generation is critical to our nation’s youth. Indeed, this ideal is why the GAO called for such a CAP in both 2017 and again in 2021. We must pursue these recommendations without any further delay.
We thank you for your dedicated service to our country and respectfully ask that the Office of Management and Budget take this request into strong consideration. The future of our country depends on the dignity of our youngest.
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