Focus on Children Act

Bill: 115-s-3074
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Harris, Kamala D. [D-CA]
Introduced: 2018-06-14
Policy area: Economics and Public Finance
Subjects: Budget deficits and national debt

Budget process

Child health

Child safety and welfare

Congressional oversight

Education programs funding

Elementary and secondary education

Government information and archives

Government studies and investigations

Health programs administration and funding

Poverty and welfare assistance
Latest action: action_date: 2018-06-14
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.

Summaries:
action_date: 2018-06-14
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Focus on Children Act </b></p> <p>This bill amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to produce studies and reports regarding federal spending on children.</p> <p>The CBO must provide:</p> <ul> <li>studies of legislation containing changes in spending on children, upon the request of a congressional committee; </li> <li>an annual report regarding spending on children; and</li> <li>an annual report on the President's budget request for spending on children. </li> </ul> <p>The CBO may provide a warning report to Congress regarding a fiscal year in which outlays for interest on the public debt will exceed spending on children. </p> <p>The CBO must also develop and maintain a public website that includes: </p> <ul> <li> the reports and studies required by this bill, </li> <li> a dashboard containing key indicators and visualization tools to assist the public in understanding trends in spending on children, and </li> <li> an open data portal that contains quantitative data on federal spending on children. </li> </ul>

tv_txt: II 115th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3074 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 14, 2018 Ms. Harris (for herself, Mr. Menendez , and Mr. Casey ) 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. Short title This Act may be cited as the Focus on Children Act . 2. Studies and reports of the Congressional Budget Office relating to the impact of legislation on spending on children Section 202(g) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 ( 2 U.S.C. 602(g) ) is amended— (1) in the heading, by inserting and reports to Congress after Studies ; and (2) by adding at the end the following: (3) Spending on children studies and reports (A) Definitions In this paragraph— (i) the term budget of the President means the budget of the President submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code; (ii) the term child means an individual under 19 years of age; (iii) the term key indicator includes information relating to the outlays described in subclause (I), (II), (III), or (IV) of clause (iv); and (iv) the term spending on children includes— (I) outlays under an entitlement authority that go directly to children; (II) outlays for a Federal program or initiative that, consistent with the mission of the program or initiative, delivers services exclusively to children; (III) outlays for a Federal program or initiative that, while not serving children directly, has as a core mission goal the improvement of the health, education, welfare, or general well-being of children; and (IV) for a Federal program or initiative that delivers services to both children and adults, the portion of outlays under the program or initiative attributable to providing benefits for children, based on the best available data. (B) Studies At the request of the Chairman or Ranking Member of a committee of the Senate or the House of Representatives, the Director shall, to the extent practicable, conduct a study of a bill, joint resolution, amendment, amendment between the Houses, or conference report containing changes in spending on children. (C) Annual reports on spending Not later than 15 days after the last day of each fiscal year, the Director shall submit to Congress a report that includes— (i) information and data regarding spending on children under appropriation Acts, including continuing resolutions, for that fiscal year; (ii) information and data regarding spending on children under an entitlement authority for that fiscal year; (iii) the share of Federal spending that constitutes spending on children under appropriation Acts, including continuing resolutions, for that fiscal year; and (iv) the share of Federal spending that constitutes spending on children under an entitlement authority for that fiscal year. (D) Annual reports on the budget of the President Not later than 15 days after the date on which the President submits to Congress the budget of the President for a fiscal year, the Director shall submit to Congress a report on the budget of the President that includes, for the prior fiscal year, the current fiscal year, the fiscal year for which the budget of the President is submitted, and the ensuing fiscal year— (i) a summary of the total amount of the appropriations or new obligational authority and outlays requested for spending on children; (ii) an estimate of the level of spending on children; (iii) an estimate of the share of Federal spending that constitutes spending on children; and (iv) an estimate of the date on which Federal spending on children will be less than outlays for interest on the public debt. (E) Warning reports (i) In general At the discretion of the Director, the Director may provide a warning report to Congress regarding a fiscal year in which outlays for interest on the public debt will exceed spending on children. (ii) Contents of warning reports The Director may include in a report issued under clause (i) a list of possible budgetary options that may be used by Congress in order to prevent such an imbalance between outlays for interest on the public debt and spending on children. (F) Open data and transparency (i) In general The Director shall publish all of the reports and studies required under this paragraph in a publicly accessible format, including through— (I) the dashboard described in clause (ii); and (II) the open data portal described in clause (iii). (ii) Dashboard The Director shall develop and maintain on an Internet website available to the public a tool (commonly referred to as a dashboard ) that— (I) highlights the key indicators identified in the reports and studies required under this paragraph; and (II) uses visualization tools to assist the public in understanding trends in spending on children over periods of time. (iii) Open data portal The Director shall develop and maintain an Internet website available to the public that— (I) provides raw quantitative data relating to spending on children contained in reports and studies required under this paragraph; (II) provides that data in a widely-accessible file format that allows the public to analyze the data; and (III) categorizes that data by budget account. .