Click here to read the entire report card and see detailed state fact sheets how each member of Congress voted.

Millions of low-income working families and individuals are relying on federal and state tax credits, such as Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC), to help them endure the recession. The economic crisis has increased unemployment and reduced work hours and wages. Credits offered by states help to alleviate this hardship and stabilize incomes.

The benefit of such programs also extends to the economy at large. State tax credits for low-income families put money into the hands of people most likely to spend it, and most likely to spend it in their local economy.

Earlier this month, Virginia enacted a cut to its EITC that would take effect in 2010 and would cost an estimated 114,000 low-income working families a total of about $6 million. Strange given how the new governor, Bob McDonnell, regularly touts the favorable tax climate as reasons for businesses coming to Virginia. A spokesperson for the governor Bob McDonnell is promising that the governor will reverse the cut so that families can claim the full credit for the 2010 tax year. So far this is simply talk because to restore this tax cut, the Governor would have to call a special session of the Virginia legislature. The 2010 regular session is over.

The Virginia legislature had to make hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts and tax changes to close their budget deficit this year, presumably why this EITC change was made. The legislature voted to phase out a corporate tax break this year, but Governor McDonnell line-item vetoed that measure. Allowing that phase-out to take effect would have saved the state $30 million, more than enough to sustain the EITC. This is simply misplaced priorities and failure in leadership. Low-income children in Virginia will have to pay the price for this even though none of them voted for Bob McDonnell last fall.

Other states are considering similar measures:

• Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty cut funding for the state Renters’ Credit by $51 million for close to 300,000 low- and moderate-income households. One-quarter of the affected households are seniors and people with severe disabilities.
• In Georgia, the state legislature is considering eliminating the refundability of the state’s low-income tax credit, which provides needed tax relief and wage support for workers earning less than $20,000 per year. The change would take nearly $22 million directly out of the pockets of the 1 million affected taxpayers — mostly workers and seniors.
• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has proposed reducing the state EITC from 25 percent of the federal credit to 20 percent. Approximately 485,000 families would lose more than $45 million. The governor is also proposing eliminating property tax rebates for seniors, renters, and homeowners with incomes below $75,000.
• In the District of Columbia, Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed reducing the District’s credit to 39 percent from 40 percent of the federal credit. This change would save the District a tiny fraction of its expenditures but take $1 million from some of the 50,000 low-income workers whose wages get a boost from the DC EITC.
• A similar reduction is being pursued in Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the three localities in the country to offer a local EITC (the other two are New York City and San Francisco). County Executive Isiah Leggett has proposed reducing the county’s EITC by one-third or $5.4 million for the 30,500 working families who claim the credit.

It is pure idiocy to raise taxes on those hardest hit by a recession. State refundable tax credits targeted at low-income working families encourage work, stabilize income, and spur consumption. Every state legislator who votes to eliminate them need to be asked why the oppose tax breaks for some, but not for working families who need them the most.

The recession has driven down state revenues by record proportions. Education makes up the largest single item in state budgets, and spending cuts there have been deep and widespread. Serious state budget shortfalls will likely persist for at least the next two years, reaching an estimated $180 billion in fiscal year 2011 (which in most states will begin July 1) and $120 billion in 2012. This sets the stage for even more severe cuts as states wait for revenues to recover to pre-recession levels. For 2011, governors are proposing cuts that go even deeper than those enacted to date. Congress must continue this educational and Medicaid support or children will have to pay an even greater price for a situation they did nothing to create. The economy didn’t crash because of spending on education, and firing teachers and close schools will not get us out of this recession.

Even though the funding the Recovery Act has provided has saved 284,000 jobs, school districts and other local education employers (such as community colleges) have nevertheless cut 104,500 jobs — and this number is very likely to grow. California school districts have notified nearly 22,000 teachers that they might be terminated, for example, and Illinois’ governor has proposed education cuts that he estimates would mean layoffs for 17,000 teachers. The end of this funding would likely accelerate this job loss. These job losses — as well as teacher furloughs, salary reductions, cancellation of contracts with private-sector vendors, and other budget-cutting measures — also weaken the overall economy by reducing consumer demand. Without additional federal aid, state budget cuts could cost the economy 900,000 public- and private-sector jobs.

In addition, current and additional education cuts undermine reform initiatives that many states are undertaking with the federal government’s encouragement, such as supporting professional development to improve teacher quality, improving interventions for young children to heighten school readiness, and turning around the lowest-achieving schools, to name just a few.

After the jump, we enumerate state education cuts already made:

K-12 Education and Other Childhood Education Programs

At least 29 states and the District of Columbia have cut K-12 education spending.

• Arizona eliminated preschool for 4,328 children, funding for schools to provide additional support to disadvantaged children from preschool to third grade, aid to charter schools, and funding for books, computers, and other classroom supplies.
• California reduced K-12 aid to local school districts by billions of dollars and is cutting a variety of programs, including adult literacy instruction and help for high-needs students.
• Georgia cut $112 million from assistance aimed at closing the gap in funding between wealthier and poorer school districts. It also made a $332 million mid-year cut to state education aid.
• Hawaii shortened the current school year by 17 days and is furloughing teachers for those days.
• Illinois reduced funding for early childhood education by 10 percent, which could cause as many as 10,000 children to lose eligibility.
• Maryland cut professional development for principals and educators, as well as health clinics, gifted and talented summer centers, and math and science initiatives.
• Michigan cut its FY 2010 school aid budget by $382 million, resulting in a $165 per-pupil spending reduction.
• Mississippi cut its FY 2010 funding for K-12 education by 9.5 percent, mostly out of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program established to bring per-pupil spending up to adequate levels in every district.
• Massachusetts cut Head Start, universal pre-kindergarten programs, and early intervention services to help special-needs children develop appropriately and be ready for school. The state also cut K-12 funding, including for mentoring, teacher training, reimbursements for special education residential schools, services for disabled students, and programs for gifted and talented students.
• New Jersey cut funding for afterschool programs aimed to enhance student achievement and keep students safe between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. The cut will likely cause more than 11,000 students to lose access to the programs and 1,100 staff workers to lose their jobs.
• Rhode Island cut state aid for K-12 education and reduced the number of children who can be served by Head Start and similar services.
• Virginia’s $700 million in cuts for the coming biennium include the state’s share of an array of school district operating and capital expenses and funding for class-size reduction in kindergarten through third grade. In addition, a $500 million reduction in state funding for some 13,000 support staff such as janitors, school nurses, and school psychologists from last year’s budget was made permanent.
• State education grants to school districts and education programs have also been cut in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington.

Governors’ Proposed Education Cuts for 2011

Governors’ budget proposals for the 2011 fiscal year show no sign that education reductions will ease. In fact, many of the proposed cuts are more severe than what states have implemented so far even though the states listed below, with the exception of Mississippi, have assumed continuation of the Recovery Act’s Medicaid assistance.

• California’s governor has proposed reducing K-12 spending for 2010-11 by $1.5 billion. In part as a result of this, nearly 22,000 California teachers have received preliminary notice that they might lose their jobs.
• Illinois’ governor has called for a $1.2 billion cut to K-12 and early education funding, including reductions of $629 million in general state aid to local school districts, and cuts of 21 percent in grants that largely fund special education and 16 percent in grants for preschool programs and developmental services for infants and toddlers. The governor has also proposed an $87 million cut to state universities. The governor’s office estimates that his proposals would mean layoffs of 17,000 teachers. The Governor has also proposed a state income tax increase that would enable education funding to be maintained at the 2010 fiscal year level.
• Michigan’s budget proposal would eliminate a program that gives college scholarships to 15,000 low-income students, and cut back another scholarship program.
• Mississippi’s governor has proposed cutting cut state aid to K-12 schools by over 9 percent.
• New Jersey’s governor has called for cutting K-12 education aid by $820 million and higher education funding by $173 million. His budget shrinks funding for the state’s largest college financial aid program by more than 10 percent and reduces support for a program promoting access to higher education for economically and educationally disadvantaged students.
• New York’s governor has proposed a $1.1 billion cut to state education aid, $143 million in cuts to four-year public colleges, and reductions in a financial aid for students from low- and moderate-income families.
• Rhode Island’s governor has proposed cutting state funding for K-12 education by more than 3 percent and higher education by nearly 6 percent.

After hearing from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who insisted that:

Now is not the time to search for non-existent loopholes that preserve a broken system. I urge you to share this information with your members and to help ensure they cease any attempt to deny coverage to some of the youngest and most vulnerable Americans.

Instead of fighting to deny care to sick children for four more years (after doing so for decades), the insurance industry backed down immediately:

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the industry’s top lobbyist said insurers will accept new regulations to dispel uncertainty over a much-publicized guarantee that children with medical problems can get coverage starting this year.

Quick resolution of the doubts was a win for Obama — and a sign that the industry has no stomach for another war of words with a president who deftly used double-digit rate hikes by the companies to revive his sweeping health care legislation from near collapse in Congress.

“Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition,” Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a letter to Sebelius. Ignagni said that the industry will “fully comply” with the regulations, expected within weeks.

This will keep happening as the insurance industry fights tooth and nail to avoid complying with this historic bill that does much for children and working families. The key is fighting them at every chance as they have shown that when kids are at harm, the best way to fight back is to shine a light on their practices.

On Wednesday, a top Republican leader said a deal on the bill would depend on working out the fate of the expired estate tax…Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said that Republicans will block consideration of the new bill unless they get “a path forward fairly soon” on the estate tax.

Not only are 1.1 million workers scheduled to lose their unemployment insurance in March, 2.7 million are on track to lose them by April, while unemployment is still at 9.7 percent and there are six unemployed workers for every job opening. 6.3 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, which is the most since the government began keeping track in 1948 and “more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.

Despite all this, Jon Kyl is insisting nothing can move forward to help middle and lower income families in dire economic straits until those wealthy few are protected from having to pay taxes when they inherit millions of dollars. Due to a Bush-era budgeting gimmick, there is no estate tax for those who inherit money in 2010. This tax will be reinstated in 2011 at the level it was when Bill Clinton was president. Kyl’s proposal to slash the estate tax rate and increase its exemption would cost $250 billion over ten years, with 99 percent of the benefit going to the heirs of multi-millionaires. Under 2009 law, only 0.2 percent of estates are subject to the estate tax at all.

The fact that Kyl has vowed to stop the business of the Senate to deal with this non-urgent issue for 99.8% of households is particularly galling given what children in his state are facing. Arizona has been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn and the housing crisis. And the Governor and legislature are proposing policies that will hurt children and families far more than the reimposition of the estate tax. If the budget were enacted, it would:

• Eliminate the state’s children’s health insurance program (KidsCare), which covers 47,000 children
• Repeal Medicaid coverage for 310,000 childless adults and 3,000 adults with serious mental illness
• Make deep cuts to support for early learning by eliminating preschool for 4,328 children and K?3 education support for more than 77,000 students
• Reduce the number of months that low-income families can receive cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, immediately eliminating assistance for 10,000 families

Last year, Jon Kyl voted against expanding the KidsCare program to 100,000 more children. He voted against the economic stimulus program that provided nearly two billion dollars in Medicaid for children, prevented a billion dollars cut in children’s programs, and invested several hundreds of million dollars in education programs and programs for disabled children in Arizona. He voted against the federal budget that increased funding for Head Start and many other children’s programs, and was just one of votes against expanding afterschool programs.

So while the Governor and legislature are making tough decisions that will hurt the health, safety, and education of Arizona children, Senator Kyl in Washington DC is blocking needed relief so that a few millionaires can avoid paying money on the millions of dollars they inherit. And people wonder why Washington is broken.

• A recent USDA report showed that in 2008, an estimated 49.1 million people, including 16.7 million children, lived in households that experienced hunger multiple times throughout the year.
• School-age children are not eating the recommended level of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products according to a 2009 Institute of Medicine report.

The administration is proposing several things to improve child nutrition. They suggest adding an additional $10 billion over ten years starting in 2011. This investment will lead to an improvement in the quality of the School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, increase the number of kids participating, and ensure that schools have the resources they need to make program changes, including training for school food service workers, upgraded kitchen equipment, and additional funding for meal reimbursements for schools that are enhancing nutrition and quality.

This investment will allow additional fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products to be served in school cafeterias and an additional one million students to be served the healthy diets that will allow them to succeed in school.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is also joining with First Lady Michelle Obama in promoting the Let’s Move campaign, which will combat the epidemic of childhood obesity through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, and mobilizes public and private sector resources. Let’s Move will engage every sector impacting the health of children to achieve the national goal of solving the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation.

Finally, the administration supports the creation of a new program to reward States that move aggressively to eliminate hunger by 2015. Through this program, USDA will provide competitive grants to Governors to implement creative and innovative approaches to eliminating hunger, letting the states act as laboratories for successful strategies.

Vote Kids strongly supports this initiative and urges Congress to pass this Child Nutrition Re-authorization with full funding to promote these initiatives.

At least 50 million people are ill-fed — up from 37 million just a year ago — including 17 million children. Hunger in America is now at an all-time high, and there are currently entire national geographic regions — the very large 15-state ‘South’ being one of them — where more than half of all public school students are poor and ill-fed.

30% of the nation’s 50 million homeowners own a home whose value is below its mortgage balance, and this number could rise to an almost unbelievable 50% by year-end 2011. It would cost about $745 billion, more than the size of the original 2008 bank bailout, to restore these borrowers to the point where they were breaking even, which there is no obvious political will to find right now.

Despite the truly dismal ‘real unemployment’ figures with which most everyone now agrees — a staggering 30 million workers and 19% of the labor force — very little attention is being paid to the particularly adverse effects the recession is having on people of color, recent immigrants, and out-of school youth. And almost no one is acknowledging the sad reality that even the nation’s 130 million full-time workers have had an average economic loss of 15% just since December 2007 — an average effective work week of 34 hours rather than 40 — which means that the number of unemployed workers, measured economically, is actually as high as 50 million.

The overwhelming problem today for most workers isn’t this recession, as horrible as it is — it’s the fact that for every earned income level except the top 10%, average household income hasn’t changed a bit for 10 years, and that for the bottom 60% of wage earners it hasn’t changed for more than 20 years. Through economic expansions and recessions — and bull and bear markets — alike, 90% of workers in America have been standing still earnings-wise.

And 100 million people, fully one-third of the entire U.S. population, are at or below “200% of the federal poverty line of $21,834 for a family of four”, which is a needs-measure made lame by the fact that no family of four can actually comfortably live on such a low annual income.

Nothing better illustrates the need for a strong response from Washington DC that we are currently not seeing. The Senate passed a small jobs bill yesterday that does little to address these major structural problems in the United States economy. The next steps must be extension of unemployment insurance, COBRA, and robust state aid to prevent devastating cuts in Medicaid, education, and child protection, among many other things. If America is to compete over the next 50 years in this cutthroat global economy, while maintaining its commitment to Social Security and Medicare, these structural problems must be addressed in a way far differently than what is currently being proposed at the federal and state level.

Preserving the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

The Act preserves the successful CHIP program and requires States to maintain income eligibility levels for CHIP through September 30, 2019 with funding extended through FY2016.

Starting in FY2016, States receive a 23 percentage point increase to their CHIP matching rate to help them cover children under the program.

This represents an improvement over both the House and Senate bills last year. The House bill ended the S-CHIP program after 2013 whereby children in the program and their parents would purchase coverage from a health insurance exchange. The Senate kept the program until 2019 but only funded it through 2015.

Vote Kids hopes that whatever final legislation emerges this week, children need all elected officials to work together to pass a meaningful health reform bill that supports their healthy development. Too much time has been wasted already as millions of children have no coverage and millions more do not have access to quality care. Unless Congress acts, more children will die, more families with go bankrupt, and more states will drop coverage for children as they make painful cuts to balance their budgets.

Utah state senator Chris Buttars proposes eliminating the 12th grade. Utah is facing a $700 million deficit and that by cutting an entire grade it will save the state about $60 million. He argues that many students don’t take a strong academic course load in their final year so that year should be optional.

Buttars has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. Of course, he could require that students take a strong course load to get the most out of the educational dollars the state spends. That is the beauty of being a lawmaker, you can make laws that benefit people, instead of looking to grab money for kids so you can avoid tough decisions about raising the revenue it takes for a quality educational system.

It is mystifying why children must lose educational opportunities and health care to solve budget problems they did nothing to create. While this idea of eliminating 12th grade might seem extreme today, it could become commonplace over the next few years if states continue to balance budgets by cutting education first and not being honest about the true costs of government.

• Arizona’s governor is proposing deep cuts to a range of programs and services. If enacted, her budget would: eliminate the state’s children’s health insurance program (KidsCare), which covers 47,000 children; make deep cuts to support for early learning by eliminating preschool for 4,328 children and eliminating state support for full-day kindergarten; and reduce the number of months that low-income families can receive cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, immediately eliminating assistance for 10,000 poor families, among other cuts.
• California’s governor is proposing deep cuts to health care and education beyond those already enacted. Specific cuts include additional deep reductions to Medi-Cal (Medicaid) services, a $1.5 billion reduction in K-12 and community college funding in 2010-11, and elimination of funding to respond to enrollment growth in the state’s public universities.
• Colorado’s governor proposes to eliminate a scheduled increase in K-12 funding that would cover enrollment and cost increases and implement an additional cut of $223 million in school aid. He also proposes delaying payments to Medicaid providers and cutting payment rates.
• Delaware’s governor proposes five days of furlough for teachers.
• Georgia’s governor proposes cuts to education that would reduce K-12 spending by nearly 11 percent from pre-recession levels; state university spending would be reduced by more than 9 percent.
• Maine’s governor is proposing 10 percent cuts in payments to certain Medicaid providers and a further cut in overall K-12 education spending beyond cuts already enacted.
• The Massachusetts budget proposes a $174 million reduction in Medicaid provider rates and eliminates state funding for a program providing housing vouchers to homeless families.
• Mississippi’s governor is proposing to cut state aid to K-12 schools by over 9 percent.
• New York’s governor is proposing a $1.1 billion cut to state education aid; more than $400 million in reduced payments to health care providers and about $100 million in other health-related cuts; $143 million in funding cuts for four-year public colleges and cuts to a financial aid program serving students from low- and moderate-income families.
• South Carolina’s governor is proposing capping total enrollment in the state’s children’s health insurance program.
• Vermont’s Governor recommends a host of spending cuts, primarily focused on human service programs and education, including a 3 percent reduction in Medicaid provider rates, Medicaid premium increases, caps on some Medicaid services like the number of emergency room visits, and an increase of 20 percent in the average number of students per teacher.
• Before leaving office, Virginia’s former governor proposed a budget for the coming biennium that would (in 2011) cap state funding for school support staff and school psychologists.
• Washington’s governor is proposing deep cuts to education and health care. She is proposing: eliminating two education programs, both of which reduce class sizes and one of which provides professional development for teachers; cutting the state work-study program as well as several smaller financial aid programs that help 11,000 students go to college; reduced funding for two- and four-year colleges, likely resulting in administrative cuts, larger class sizes, and elimination of support services such as student advising; and a 20 percent reduction in early interventions and 25 percent reduction in direct client services for HIV and HIV-vulnerable populations.

As a result, about 2.6 million previously uninsured children gained coverage last year in government health programs, according to a federal study released this week. The gains were due to increased need because of the recession and stepped-up recruitment efforts by some states.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday attributed much of the increase in enrollment in the programs to Congress last February reauthorizing CHIP, which gave states millions of new dollars to expand coverage and financial incentives to make it easier to enroll children.

“Most of these families would not have had the help without” the legislation, Sebelius said at an event at a Washington D.C. child care center.

Nineteen states last year either increased eligibility in Medicaid or CHIP, eliminated monthly premiums or simplified enrollment procedures. Unfortunately, fifteen states scaled back coverage.

But 5 million uninsured children who are eligible for the state-federal coverage programs are not enrolled. To make it easier to get kids signed up for government health coverage, Sebelius has offered to allow states to tap into data on families who already qualify for food stamps.

Children would have not made these gains without the American electorate rejecting politicians opposed to expanding health care for children. John McCain voted against expanding health care for children and would have rejected this expansion. As a result, more children would be uninsured today had he been elected president.

Where does Scott Brown stand on children’s issues and the need for greater investment in their health, education, and safety? It is hard to tell. On his campaign website, he only addresses children briefly and with a lack of specifics about the types of bills he would support at the federal level:

I am passionate about improving the quality of our public schools. Accountability and high standards are paramount. I support choice through charter schools, as well as the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement. I have worked to ensure that all children have access to a quality education. I am a strong advocate for the METCO program, which provides lower income students with broader educational opportunities.

He does say he is “opposed to the health care legislation that is under consideration in Congress and will vote against it”. The bill he would vote against provides substantial benefits to children and families.

He campaign against the stimulus passed early last year which provided substantial benefits to children and families.

He says he “has been a fiscal watchdog in the state legislature fighting bigger government, higher taxes and wasteful spending”. We hope that means he would not be opposed to the President’s budget where he proposed substantial increases in programs which benefit children and families. There is plenty of wasteful spending in the federal budget, but there are plenty of good children’s programs which need greater investment, not cuts.

Vote Kids congratulates incoming Senator Brown and hopes he will continue Senator Kennedy’s legacy of championing legislation to prepare every child for success in life through smart, proven federal programs which provide access to the best quality education, health care, and keeps children safe from harm. If he votes against these programs, we will be among the first to point that out.

Compounding this lack of investment, is the dearth of public funds invested in children under 6, the age where research shows that we get the highest returns from education spending.

Parents continue to bear most of the costs of rearing the next generation, while the elderly reap significant benefits — whether they have helped raise children or not. Children grow up to become working-age adults paying the taxes that help finance Social Security and Medicare.

Click here to read more. President Obama will release his budget next month. Vote Kids supports greater federal spending on children’s programs in the federal budget, and a national strategy to get the best possible results for what the federal government spends. This report, and many others, show that the federal government has moved in the wrong direction in recent years in how it addresses the needs of children. We have the opportunity to correct this. Come back here for more information about how the 2011 federal budget addresses the challenges facing children.

The Vote Kids TV ad features Dr. Amanda McKinney, a Nebraska obstetrician/gynecologist who knows first-hand the deficiencies of our current system of care and coverage. The full text of the ad follows:

Dr. Amanda McKinney:

I’ve spent my career treating families. I know first hand how our health care system has often let kids and their parents down.

A lot of people talk about helping Nebraska families.  Ben Nelson does it.

While Governor, Ben Nelson made sure more kids got health insurance and as a Senator he supports health care reform that will saves lives and saves money.

Thank you Senator Nelson for taking care of our kids and families.  Your vote on health reform was right for Nebraska and our nation.

KABUL (AFP) – Children are the biggest victims of the war in Afghanistan, with more than 1,050 people under 18 years old killed last year alone, according to an Afghan human rights watchdog.

Taliban-linked militants caused around 64 percent of all violent child deaths last year, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in a report.

Children were also press-ganged, sexually exploited, deprived of health and education, and illegally detained by all sides in a war that is dragging into its ninth year since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.

“At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009 and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways,” ARM director Ajmal Samadi said.

Children died in suicide attacks and roadside bombings — at the crux of the Taliban’s arsenal against US, NATO and Afghan troops fighting the increasingly virulent insurgency as it spreads across the impoverished country.

The Taliban “reportedly caused more harm and intentionally abused more children for illegal purposes than pro-government Afghan and international forces,” the report said.

Click here to read the whole story

• Senate Bill – Preserves the program and would extend federal financing through 2015, two years past its expiration date under the reauthorization passed earlier this year.
• House Bill – Ends S-CHIP and redirects the millions of children either to Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor, or to new health insurance exchanges where moderate-income Americans would be able to buy private coverage using new federal subsidies to help offset the cost.

Many children’s health advocates cite numerous risks:

Simply shifting children from one program to another could result in some losing coverage, even on a temporary basis. And there is a chance that parents, even with new subsidies, will find coverage unaffordable and choose not to buy it for themselves or their children, despite a new mandate in both bills that nearly everyone obtain coverage.

“The country has made remarkable progress in covering kids in recent years because of the success of CHIP and its companion program, Medicaid,” said Jocelyn A. Guyer, co-executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. “It would be a major problem if health reform undercut these gains by shutting CHIP down too abruptly or by moving kids into coverage that isn’t as affordable and as well-designed to get them the care they need to develop and grow.”

Other issues impacting the final version of the legislation include immigration and children whose parents have mixed immigrant status. As many as 14 percent of children with health care through government programs come from such families. The bill creates child-only insurance policies but does not provide detail on how they will work.

The bills expand Medicaid to individuals and families earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (currently about $29,327) under the Senate bill, and up to 150 percent of the poverty level ($33,075) under the House bill. Under both the Senate and House bills, illegal immigrants would not be eligible for the insurance subsidies. States are concerned about the additional costs that they are already drowning under and causing cuts to many other health, education, and child safety programs.

These issues will be hammered out over the next several weeks. Check back here for updates on how the final version of the health care reform will benefit children and families and what challenges will remain or emerge as it is implemented.

• Extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the adoption tax credit to 2015
• Allow foster care children aging out of Medicaid to retain their comprehensive coverage
• Immediately ban denial of coverage for children based on pre-existing conditions
• Expand Medicaid eligibility to children in families from 100% of poverty to 133% of poverty, covering millions of children in this comprehensive program
• Establish a Pregnancy Assistance Fund assist teenaged mothers
• Allow children to stay on their parents’ health insurance until the age 26
• Add billions of dollars for community health centers, which will improve access and delivery of care for millions of children across this country
• Require coverage for basic pediatric services under all health plans as well as oral and vision coverage, which improves a child’s ability to learn and perform at school
• Improve the care our nation’s children receive through developing children’s quality priorities and promoting children’s quality measurement and reporting
• Ensure that all children have access to free preventive services under their health insurance plans and invest in prevention and public health to encourage innovations in health care that prevent illness and disease before they require more costly treatment
• Offer health insurance through an Exchange to families without job-based coverage, or are not eligible for government programs, and provide premium assistance to those who can’t afford it
• Ensure through a health insurance Exchange that children have access to affordable child-only health insurance policies, regardless of whether their parents change jobs, leave a job, move, or get sick

While the bill is not perfect, and we would like to see the SCHIP program funded through 2019 with a requirement that no children are worse off as they move to these untested exchanges, the benefits far outweigh any shortcoming in the bill which future Congresses will have the opportunity to correct.

The simple fact is no bill ever crafted in Washington is perfect. When civil rights laws were passed five decades ago, there was a Civil Rights Act of 1960, a Civil Rights Act of 1964, and a Civil Rights Act of 1968. Each bill was incomplete, but they began a process of better and stronger laws and protections in the future, and created an environment where the debate centered on what is the best to improve the news laws, not the same tired debate of whether or not to begin reform. This bill is real health reform, and it will provide enormous benefits to America’s children and families.

What Can You Do Next?

No effort to reform health care has ever gotten this far and your Senators need to hear from you telling them to support this bill. Click here to contact your Senator.

The bill will now move to a House and Senate conference committee. Vote Kids will be working with other groups to let members of that conference committee know that they can make the bill even better for children such as funding the SCHIP program to 2019 like Senators Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania have been trying to do. The final votes should come early next year.

Happy Holidays and a Great New Year for you and your family, and a hopefully better New Year for the nation’s uninsured and underinsured children.

It turns out that the House indeed wants to repeal the program and require kids to get coverage via the insurance exchange, the government’s soon-to-be gigantic brokerage service. Their parents, of course, would be getting subsidies to help buy coverage, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Rep. John Dingell, a Democrat no less, touted the advantages of dumping SCHIP. One advantage: the program wouldn’t be subject to the periodic and occasionally problematic Congressional reauthorizations that threaten its existence. Dingell said kids could have the same insurance as their parents—an incentive to force parents to cover their kids. (Sometimes parents, daunted by bureaucratic red tape, don’t enroll their children even if they are eligible.)

Another reason for killing SCHIP, some believe, is to force kids into the new exchange’s risk pool. Kids are usually healthy; bringing them into the pool may help spread the risk and keep premiums somewhat lower for the sick people whom insurers would have to cover.

It is an open question whether children currently in SCHIP will be better off in the exchange or not. President Obama finally signed an expansion of SCHIP in January, after President Bush vetoed it twice in 2007. However, even with the expansion, the program leaves out about half of the kids who have no health insurance.

On the other hand, if the House provision were to take effect, kids might lose some valuable and comprehensive benefits now available to kids on Medicaid and SCHIP. If parents, strapped for cash, had to shop in the exchange, they might choose low-cost insurance with skimpy benefits and pay more out-of-pocket than SCHIP currently requires them to pay. SCHIP rules limit a family’s out-of-pocket costs to five percent of their income.

Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania proposed an amendment to guarantee full funding for SCHIP through 2019 and would also give the states generous federal funding to eliminate barriers that now prevent families from enrolling their kids, and would preserve the program’s full package of medical and mental health services. Click here to tell your Senators to support the Casey kids amendment.

Legislative leaders, particularly in the conservative-led House of Delegates, have their own ideas as well. House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said there are small-ticket items, a state-funded award program at Virginia Commonwealth University that honors excellence in Virginia governing, for instance, that could be cut. He also proposed scaling back Kaine’s efforts to expand state-funded preschool.

If only the state did spend $2.6 billion a year on preschool for 3 and 4 year olds. That would be one of the best investments the state could make, bringing back as many as 7 dollars for every dollar invested. Nothing better illustrates the short-sighted decisions policymakers are contemplating. Thinking what will be in the best interests of children and the state 10, 20, 30 years from now might not help politicians get re-elected, and might require something more than “limited government” or some such ideological buzzword of the moment.

4 year-olds did not put Virginia in the budget situation it faces, and denying them the head start they need to enter school ready to learn won’t solve the state’s problems.

If the amendment becomes law:

1. CHIP continues with full funding through FY 2019. After the country accumulates real-world experience with the new coverage system established by reform legislation, Congress can make an informed decision whether to move CHIP children into the Exchange. In the meantime, the popular and successful CHIP program will continue to serve millions of low-income children, without forcing them into a new and untested system of coverage that would dramatically raise their health care costs and reduce covered benefits.
2. In 2016, HHS reports to Congress about the difference between subsidized coverage in the Exchange and children’s coverage through CHIP. This report will inform Congress’ decisions about what happens to CHIP after 2019. If Congress decides to move CHIP children into the Exchange, this schedule allows time for a well-planned transition.
3. States can count on federal CHIP dollars through FY 2019. From FY 2013 through FY 2019, states will qualify for federal matching funds whenever eligible children receive covered services. CHIP’s financial structure will thus fit with broader reform, in which Medicaid and Exchange subsidies are guaranteed without any rigid dollar limits in federal law. As a result, federal CHIP financing, like Medicaid and Exchange subsidies, will automatically adjust to changing conditions in each state, without artificial constraints locked into federal statute.
4. States receive generous federal funding for all CHIP children. Starting in FY 2014, the federal government will pay between 88 and 94 percent of CHIP costs, depending on the state. To qualify for enhanced funding, states must implement recognized best practices for streamlining enrollment of eligible children.
5. Children can count on CHIP eligibility. Through FY 2013, states may not reduce CHIP eligibility below levels in effect on October 1, 2009. Beginning in FY 2014, all states must cover children up to at least 250 percent of FPL.
6. Children can count on affordable access to essential health care. States may not increase CHIP costs charged to families, except to reflect increases in median income among low-income families after FY 2013. And if a state would cover a service for poor Medicaid children, it must offer that same service to CHIP children.
7. Families can conveniently apply for children’s coverage using their federal income tax returns. Beginning in calendar year 2014, parents can ask for their federal income tax returns to be used to establish their children’s eligibility for Medicaid, CHIP, and subsidies in the Exchange. Unless there is reason to believe that the tax return information is inaccurate, it will determine eligibility whenever possible, without requiring families to complete additional, redundant paperwork. However, no tax information can be disclosed to health agencies unless such agencies have contractual or other legal obligations that, in the judgment of the Treasury Department, fully safeguard taxpayer privacy and data security.
8. Outreach and enrollment grants begun by CHIPRA continue. Grants of $50 million a year will help community-based organizations and states enroll eligible children into coverage.
9. Health subsidy programs gain access to the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH), which is the nation’s most comprehensive information about quarterly wage earnings and new hires. Programs like Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Unemployment Insurance already use NDNH to verify eligibility. By adding Medicaid, CHIP, and Exchange subsidies to the list of programs authorized to access NDNH, the amendment will prevent eligibility errors, safeguard program integrity, and increase the ability of program administrators to establish eligibility based on recent income data.
10. Any net federal budget savings are shared, 50/50, between deficit reduction and a new Fund for Vulnerable Children and Families. The Secretary of HHS can use this fund to combat infant mortality, help low-income children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities, and provide health services (including mental health care) to children who are in foster care or homeless.

You can check out the full Teachers report and learn more surprising facts about hungry kids and the teachers trying to help them at the Share Our Strength site.

Share Our Strength also interviewed two teachers in New York City about their personal experiences with students who have come to depend on them for enough food to get them through the day. As you and your family sit down to dinner this Thanksgiving, remember the plight of millions of children, victims of the economic recession they did nothing to create or sustain, and do something this holiday season, volunteer or give to a charitable cause, to give them something to be thankful for.

There are many benefits to children and families in the Senate bill. These include:

• Prohibiting pre-existing condition exclusions
• Allowing children to be covered under their parent’s insurance up to the age of 26
• Extending of Medicaid coverage to all foster youth below the age of 25 who were formerly in foster care for a period of six months
• Simplifying enrollment into Medicaid and the state children’s health insurance program (S-CHIP)
• Allowing children in hospice care to continue receiving coverage under Medicaid and CHIP for services  related to the treatment of the child’s condition
• Exempting individuals in poverty from coverage mandate and penalties
• Funding to states to develop and implement evidence-based Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Visitation models
• Establishing grant program to support school-based health centers
• Requiring that publicly financed insurance plans offer dental and oral health coverage to children
• Amending the Fair Labor Standards to require employers, with more than 50 employees, provide break time and a place for breastfeeding mothers to express milk
• Appropriating $25 million for the childhood obesity demonstration project from FY 2010 through 2014

As debate continues to a final vote and amendments get offered, we hope the final legislation addresses five serious concerns we have:

1. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program was extended though Dec. 31, 2019. However, funding was not provided to support the program past Dec. 31, 2013. Together, Medicaid and CHIP has successfully brought down the rate of uninsured children to a 20 year low, and we call on the Senate to build on this progress and fund CHIP past Dec. 31, 2013.
2. The bill moves in the right direction by requiring insurance plans to provide coverage for recommended guidelines on prevention. We hope the Senate moves this effort even further by ensuring that all children have access to a comprehensive benefit package that supports their healthy development.
3. We believe more should be done to ensure that a newly reformed system provides families with the opportunity to purchase affordable coverage. The current structure devised under the Senate bill must improve the affordability levels for families eligible to receive a federal subsidy at the lowest-income levels.
4. We believe that a final Senate bill should increase Medicaid provider reimbursement rates. The Senate increases Medicaid eligibility to 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, but they need to ensure that children and their families will be able to access health care providers.
5. We hope that the Senate will recognize the extreme budget situation in the states extend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for Medicaid for another six months. As states continue to face fiscal pressures, which result in cuts to programs that serve children and their families, we hope that the Senate will mirror the efforts in the House to extend the ARRA funding.

What’s Next

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is waiting for Congressional Budget Office cost estimates before bringing a combined measure to the full chamber, controlled 60-40 by Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them.

Senate leaders are still working to win Republican backing because 60 votes is the minimum needed to overcome a legislative maneuver known as a filibuster that’s likely to come from opponents, and there’s no assurance the Democrats will stick together. Otherwise, Democratic leaders could resort to a budget process known as reconciliation, whose rules require only a majority for passage yet might force a scaled-back measure.

If measures pass both chambers, the House and Senate would work together to fashion a compromise for another round of votes. The final legislation would go to Obama to be signed into law. Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress say they want the bill signed by the end of this year.

That deadline may slip.

Where the House and Senate Differ

Public Option: The House would create a new government-run insurance program designed to compete with private companies such as Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. and help reduce prices for insurance in the market. The plan requires that the new entity negotiate rates with medical providers as private insurers do, instead of pegging rates to the lower fees paid by Medicare.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid also is pushing for a public option, though his proposal would allow states to opt out of the program. The Nevada Democrat also may not have the votes to push it through after the two committees split in his chamber.

The Senate health panel supported the public option and the finance committee voted against it in favor of nonprofit cooperatives, or networks of health-insurance plans owned by the customers they serve, that would get government seed money.

Employer Mandate: The House requires that employers cover their workers or pay a penalty, with potential exemptions for some businesses because of size or hardship. The measure under consideration by Reid, tracking the Senate finance panel’s work, would instead require that employers with more than 50 full-time workers pay a fee for every lower-income employee who qualifies for a new tax credit to obtain care.

How to Pay For It: The House version would add a surtax on the wealthiest Americans, starting with couples who earn more than $1 million a year. The chamber also has other taxes including one designed to raise $20 billion over 10 years from medical device makers.

The Senate version would tax insurers on the most generous, so-called Cadillac benefit plans. It also includes new annual fees on insurers, medical-device manufacturers, drugmakers and clinical laboratories beginning in 2010 and imposed based on market share. Because only the finance committee has jurisdiction over funding in the Senate, there’s no conflict between panels.

In addition, the House is looking for other ways to pay for health care, such as a proposal to keep pulp and paper makers from claiming up to $24 billion in tax credits. The plan would bar companies from using an Internal Revenue Service ruling made public last month to claim a $1.01 a gallon tax credit for producing cellulosic biofuel from so-called black liquor, a wood byproduct from pulp-making.

The US Census American Community Survey, for the first time, put out estimates of the number of uninsured children and adults by congressional district. As many uninsured children reside in districts of those who voted “nay” as live in districts of those who say “yea”.

When looking at adults 18-64, only a slightly higher percentage of uninsured adults live in districts represented by someone who voted “yea” on reform.

In all, 17.3% of those under 65 and who live in districts represented by a member of Congress who voted “yea” on reform are uninsured.

16.8% of those under 65 and who live in districts represented by a member of Congress who voted “nay” on reform are uninsured.