Federal spending on children is a good investment, with large returns in both the short and long terms for children and society. By helping give children a strong start, some programs can even provide the federal government with a long-term return of $10 for each dollar it invests in children.
Yet the Trump administration has shown interest in cutting federal spending. The Republican Study Committee (PDF), Project 2025 (PDF), and the Republican House Budget Committee (PDF) have proposed policies for reducing spending that include cuts to programs that provide essential support for children.
Analyses from the Urban Institute’s Kids’ Share project tell us what these cuts could mean for spending on children. While we don’t know exactly how these proposals would translate specifically to children, we can look at how much federal support children received from these programs to understand what’s at stake.
What programs are targeted for cuts?
The proposals for reducing federal spending from the Republican Study Committee, Project 2025, and the Republican House Budget Committee include cuts to crucial programs for children. We highlight examples from each proposal below, though it’s important to note the proposals suggest reductions across multiple programs and often target the same programs.
The Republican Study Committee (PDF) budget proposal calls for a $4.5 trillion reduction in health care spending over 10 years, including cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that would reduce the programs by more than half. It also proposes cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would reduce average nutrition benefits for the more than 40 million people participating in the program.
Project 2025 (PDF) proposes to eliminate Head Start, which provides early education services to more than 800,000 children.
The House Budget Committee’s budget resolution proposes to substantially reduce spending on income security programs including SNAP, the earned income tax credit (EITC), the child tax credit (CTC), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
How much does the federal government spend on children?
In 2023, more than half of all federal spending on children (57 percent) went toward Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, Head Start, TANF, the CTC, and the EITC—which would all face cuts under the proposals above.
The Majority of Federal Spending on Children Comes from Programs Facing Proposed Cuts
Total federal spending on children in 2023 (billions of dollars)
Source: Kids’ Share 2024: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2023 and Future Projections (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2024).
Notes: CHIP = Children’s Health Insurance Program; CTC = child tax credit; EITC = earned income tax credit; SNAP = Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; TANF = Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The blue programs are among the major programs targeted for cuts in the proposals from the Republican Study Committee, Project 2025, and the House Budget Committee. The values shown reflect total federal spending on children in 2023, not the amount each program would lose under the proposals. The proposals would not fully cut these programs, except for Head Start. The gray programs may be targeted for additional reductions.
Looking at how much each program spends on children can also help us understand how children might fare. All Head Start and CTC spending is focused on children. SNAP and Medicaid support people of all ages, but 22 percent of Medicaid spending and 44 percent of SNAP spending supports children.
Across all federal expenditures (not including tax reductions), 9 percent goes toward children, and this share is projected to decline to 6 percent by 2034. Drastic cuts to any of these major programs would affect children.
Why spending on children matters
The federal programs facing cuts under the Republican Study Committee, Project 2025, and Republican House Budget Committee proposals provide vital supports for children’s short- and long-term well-being. By setting children up to thrive in adulthood, these programs benefit society and have a positive return on investment for the federal government.
Children’s health and education programs, programs that reduce childhood poverty, and programs directed at supporting very young children have especially high payoffs in the long term. For each dollar invested in health, the government receives a $1.78 return. Urban Institute research shows the expanded CTC, available during the COVID-19 pandemic, could help more children from families with low incomes graduate from high school and college and earn more in adulthood.
Before cutting federal programs in the name of efficiency, policymakers should consider the impacts on children and the potential long-term consequences for society of forgoing these crucial investments in children.
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