If the Trump administration’s 2019 budget were to be fully adopted, federal spending on children would be 6 percent lower over the next 10 years, compared with spending projections under current law. The largest proportional cuts would be to spending on early education and care programs, which would be reduced by 26 percent below baseline projections for 2019–28. Education spending on children would be reduced by 19 percent, child-related health spending by 5 percent, child-related nutrition spending by 5 percent, and child-related spending on social services, housing, and training by 19 percent. Child-related income security spending would increase, but only by 1 percent above the projected baseline.
This brief was updated in August 2018. On page 2, a reduction in funding for Head Start given as a 29 percent decrease was corrected to 25 percent. All other references to this reduction (e.g., table 2) already used the correct value. On page 5, a missing table note below table 1 was restored.