II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2133 

To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to provide for studies 

and reports relating to the impact of legislation on spending on children, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 17, 2021 

Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself, Mr. CASEY, and Mr. MENENDEZ) introduced 

the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 

on the Budget 

A BILL 

To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to provide 

for studies and reports relating to the impact of legislation on spending on children, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Focus on Children 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. STUDIES AND REPORTS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL 

2 BUDGET OFFICE RELATING TO THE IMPACT 

3 OF LEGISLATION ON SPENDING ON CHIL4 DREN. 

5 Section 202(g) of the Congressional Budget Act of 

6 1974 (2 U.S.C. 602(g)) is amended— 

7 (1) in the heading, by inserting ‘‘AND REPORTS

8 TO CONGRESS’’ after ‘‘STUDIES’’; and 

9 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘(3) SPENDING ON CHILDREN STUDIES AND

11 REPORTS.— 

12 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 

13 ‘‘(i) the term ‘budget of the President’ 

14 means the budget of the President sub15 mitted to Congress under section 1105(a) 

16 of title 31, United States Code; 

17 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘category of spending 

18 on children’ means— 

19 ‘‘(I) spending on children that is 

20 discretionary appropriations; 

21 ‘‘(II) spending on children under 

22 an entitlement authority; 

23 ‘‘(III) spending on children that 

24 is a tax expenditure; 


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1 ‘‘(IV) spending on children that 

2 is discretionary appropriations or 

3 under an entitlement authority; or 

4 ‘‘(V) spending on children that is 

5 discretionary appropriations, under an 

6 entitlement authority, or a tax ex7 penditure; 

8 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘child’ means an indi9 vidual under 19 years of age; 

10 ‘‘(iv) the term ‘discretionary appro11 priations’— 

12 ‘‘(I) has the meaning given that 

13 term in section 250 of the Balanced 

14 Budget and Emergency Deficit Con15 trol Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 900); and 

16 ‘‘(II) includes amounts appro17 priated under Acts making supple18 mental appropriations and continuing 

19 resolutions; 

20 ‘‘(v) the term ‘Federal spending’ in21 cludes all outlays and tax expenditures; 

22 ‘‘(vi) the term ‘key indicator’ includes 

23 information relating to the outlays or tax 

24 expenditures described in subclause (I), 

25 (II), (III), (IV), or (V) of clause (vii); and 


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1 ‘‘(vii) the term ‘spending on children’ 

2 includes— 

3 ‘‘(I) outlays under an entitlement 

4 authority that go directly to children; 

5 ‘‘(II) outlays for a Federal pro6 gram or initiative that, consistent 

7 with the mission of the program or 

8 initiative, delivers services exclusively 

9 to children; 

10 ‘‘(III) outlays for a Federal pro11 gram or initiative that, while not serv12 ing children directly, has as a core 

13 mission goal the improvement of the 

14 health, education, welfare, or general 

15 well-being of children; 

16 ‘‘(IV) for a Federal program or 

17 initiative that delivers services to both 

18 children and adults, the portion of 

19 outlays under the program or initia20 tive attributable to providing benefits 

21 for children, based on the best avail22 able data; and 

23 ‘‘(V) tax expenditures that have, 

24 as a core goal, the improvement of the 


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1 health, education, welfare, or general 

2 well-being of children. 

3 ‘‘(B) STUDIES.—At the request of the 

4 Chairman or Ranking Member of a committee 

5 of the Senate or the House of Representatives, 

6 the Director shall, to the extent practicable, 

7 conduct a study of a bill, joint resolution, 

8 amendment, amendment between the Houses, 

9 or conference report containing changes in 

10 spending on children that includes, separately 

11 for each category of spending on children, infor12 mation and data, including the amount of the 

13 change in spending on children for each cat14 egory of spending on children. 

15 ‘‘(C) ANNUAL REPORTS ON SPENDING.— 

16 As soon as is practicable after the date on 

17 which the Director completes an analysis of the 

18 budget of the President, the Director shall sub19 mit to Congress a report that includes informa20 tion and data regarding spending on children 

21 separately for each category of spending on 

22 children, including— 

23 ‘‘(i) the amount of spending on chil24 dren for each category of spending on chil25 dren; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) the share of Federal spending 

2 constituted by spending on children for 

3 each category of spending on children. 

4 ‘‘(D) ANNUAL REPORTS ON THE BUDGET

5 OF THE PRESIDENT.—As soon as is practicable 

6 after the date on which the Director completes 

7 an analysis of the budget of the President, the 

8 Director shall submit to Congress a report on 

9 the budget of the President that includes infor10 mation and data regarding spending on children 

11 separately for each category of spending on 

12 children for the prior fiscal year, the current 

13 fiscal year, the fiscal year for which the budget 

14 of the President is submitted, and the ensuing 

15 fiscal year, including— 

16 ‘‘(i) for the prior fiscal year, the 

17 amount of and share of Federal spending 

18 constituted by each category of spending 

19 on children; 

20 ‘‘(ii) for the current fiscal year, the 

21 estimated amount of and share of Federal 

22 spending constituted by each category of 

23 spending on children; 

24 ‘‘(iii) for the fiscal year for which the 

25 budget of the President is submitted, the 


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1 amount of and share of Federal spending 

2 constituted by each category of spending 

3 on children under the budget of the Presi4 dent; and 

5 ‘‘(iv) for the fiscal year after the fiscal 

6 year described in clause (iii), the amount 

7 of and share of Federal spending con8 stituted by each category of spending on 

9 children under the budget of the President. 

10 ‘‘(E) OPEN DATA AND TRANSPARENCY.— 

11 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall 

12 publish all of the reports and studies re13 quired under this paragraph in a publicly 

14 accessible format, including through— 

15 ‘‘(I) the dashboard described in 

16 clause (ii); and 

17 ‘‘(II) the open data portal de18 scribed in clause (iii). 

19 ‘‘(ii) DASHBOARD.—The Director 

20 shall develop and maintain on an internet 

21 website available to the public a tool (com22 monly referred to as a ‘dashboard’) that— 

23 ‘‘(I) highlights the key indicators 

24 identified in the reports and studies 

25 required under this paragraph; and 


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1 ‘‘(II) uses visualization tools to 

2 assist the public in understanding 

3 trends in spending on children over 

4 periods of time. 

5 ‘‘(iii) OPEN DATA PORTAL.—The Di6 rector shall develop and maintain an inter7 net website available to the public that— 

8 ‘‘(I) provides raw quantitative 

9 data relating to spending on children 

10 contained in reports and studies re11 quired under this paragraph; 

12 ‘‘(II) provides that data in a 

13 widely accessible file format that al14 lows the public to analyze the data; 

15 and 

16 ‘‘(III) categorizes that data by 

17 budget account.’’. 

Æ 


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