Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 191 / Wednesday, October 4, 2017 / Presidential Documents 46361 

Proclamation 9650 of September 29, 2017 

Child Health Day, 2017 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

On Child Health Day, we commit to protecting and promoting the health 

and well-being of our Nation’s young people. How we treat our young 

people is a fundamental test of who we are as a society. Today, we reaffirm 

that all children deserve to grow up in healthy, safe, and loving homes, 

with parents or guardians who nurture, inspire, and empower them to realize 

their full potential. 

As a father, I know the hope and joy children bring to our lives. They 

are society’s most precious treasures and our most vulnerable population. 

We all share the moral responsibility to protect the health of our children, 

born and unborn, so they have the chance to achieve their potential. 

To these ends, my Fiscal Year 2018 Budget provides a $30 million increase 

for the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant program, which 

enhances access to critical health services for 57 million women and children. 

In close partnership with States and communities, this program helps ensure 

mothers receive critical prenatal care and nutrition, provides aid for children 

with disabilities, and opens access to other vital health services. The program 

also addresses emerging issues that painfully affect our children, such as 

mental health disorders and our Nation’s devastating opioid epidemic. The 

number of infants born physically dependent on opioids has more than 

quadrupled over the past decade. In addition, during the past 2 years, 

many States have experienced dramatic increases in the number of children 

in their foster-care systems, as parents have struggled with addiction and 

its terrible consequences. I am committed to aggressively combating the 

scourge of opioid abuse, so that children do not bear the burden of its 

devastation. 

Together, we will strive to create an environment in which children of 

all of ages and backgrounds grow up healthy and secure, so they may 

use their unique talents to improve their communities and our world. 

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 18, 1928, as amended 

(36 U.S.C. 105), has called for the designation of the first Monday in October 

as Child Health Day and has requested that the President issue a proclamation 

in observance of this day. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim Monday, October 

2, 2017, as Child Health Day. I call upon families, child health professionals, 

faith-based and community organizations, and governments to help ensure 

that America’s children stay safe and healthy. 


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46362 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 191 / Wednesday, October 4, 2017 / Presidential Documents 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth 

day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and 

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 

and forty-second. 

[FR Doc. 2017–21554 

Filed 10–3–17; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 3295–F7–P 


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