Focus on Children Act

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 legisla- tion on spending on children, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Focus on Children 4 Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2133 IS SEC. 2. STUDIES AND REPORTS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL 1 BUDGET OFFICE RELATING TO THE IMPACT 2 OF LEGISLATION ON SPENDING ON CHIL- 3 DREN. 4 Section 202(g) of the Congressional Budget Act of 5 1974 (2 U.S.C. 602(g)) is amended— 6 (1) in the heading, by inserting ‘‘AND REPORTS 7 TO CONGRESS’’ after ‘‘STUDIES’’; and 8 (2) by adding at the end the following: 9 ‘‘(3) SPENDING ON CHILDREN STUDIES AND 10 REPORTS.— 11 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 12 ‘‘(i) the term ‘budget of the President’ 13 means the budget of the President sub- 14 mitted to Congress under section 1105(a) 15 of title 31, United States Code; 16 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘category of spending 17 on children’ means— 18 ‘‘(I) spending on children that is 19 discretionary appropriations; 20 ‘‘(II) spending on children under 21 an entitlement authority; 22 ‘‘(III) spending on children that 23 is a tax expenditure; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2133 IS ‘‘(IV) spending on children that 1 is discretionary appropriations or 2 under an entitlement authority; or 3 ‘‘(V) spending on children that is 4 discretionary appropriations, under an 5 entitlement authority, or a tax ex- 6 penditure; 7 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘child’ means an indi- 8 vidual under 19 years of age; 9 ‘‘(iv) the term ‘discretionary appro- 10 priations’— 11 ‘‘(I) has the meaning given that 12 term in section 250 of the Balanced 13 Budget and Emergency Deficit Con- 14 trol Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 900); and 15 ‘‘(II) includes amounts appro- 16 priated under Acts making supple- 17 mental appropriations and continuing 18 resolutions; 19 ‘‘(v) the term ‘Federal spending’ in- 20 cludes all outlays and tax expenditures; 21 ‘‘(vi) the term ‘key indicator’ includes 22 information relating to the outlays or tax 23 expenditures described in subclause (I), 24 (II), (III), (IV), or (V) of clause (vii); and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2133 IS ‘‘(vii) the term ‘spending on children’ 1 includes— 2 ‘‘(I) outlays under an entitlement 3 authority that go directly to children; 4 ‘‘(II) outlays for a Federal pro- 5 gram or initiative that, consistent 6 with the mission of the program or 7 initiative, delivers services exclusively 8 to children; 9 ‘‘(III) outlays for a Federal pro- 10 gram or initiative that, while not serv- 11 ing children directly, has as a core 12 mission goal the improvement of the 13 health, education, welfare, or general 14 well-being of children; 15 ‘‘(IV) for a Federal program or 16 initiative that delivers services to both 17 children and adults, the portion of 18 outlays under the program or initia- 19 tive attributable to providing benefits 20 for children, based on the best avail- 21 able data; and 22 ‘‘(V) tax expenditures that have, 23 as a core goal, the improvement of the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2133 IS health, education, welfare, or general 1 well-being of children. 2 ‘‘(B) STUDIES.—At the request of the 3 Chairman or Ranking Member of a committee 4 of the Senate or the House of Representatives, 5 the Director shall, to the extent practicable, 6 conduct a study of a bill, joint resolution, 7 amendment, amendment between the Houses, 8 or conference report containing changes in 9 spending on children that includes, separately 10 for each category of spending on children, infor- 11 mation and data, including the amount of the 12 change in spending on children for each cat- 13 egory of spending on children. 14 ‘‘(C) ANNUAL REPORTS ON SPENDING.— 15 As soon as is practicable after the date on 16 which the Director completes an analysis of the 17 budget of the President, the Director shall sub- 18 mit to Congress a report that includes informa- 19 tion and data regarding spending on children 20 separately for each category of spending on 21 children, including— 22 ‘‘(i) the amount of spending on chil- 23 dren for each category of spending on chil- 24 dren; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 2133 IS ‘‘(ii) the share of Federal spending 1 constituted by spending on children for 2 each category of spending on children. 3 ‘‘(D) ANNUAL REPORTS ON THE BUDGET 4 OF THE PRESIDENT.—As soon as is practicable 5 after the date on which the Director completes 6 an analysis of the budget of the President, the 7 Director shall submit to Congress a report on 8 the budget of the President that includes infor- 9 mation and data regarding spending on children 10 separately for each category of spending on 11 children for the prior fiscal year, the current 12 fiscal year, the fiscal year for which the budget 13 of the President is submitted, and the ensuing 14 fiscal year, including— 15 ‘‘(i) for the prior fiscal year, the 16 amount of and share of Federal spending 17 constituted by each category of spending 18 on children; 19 ‘‘(ii) for the current fiscal year, the 20 estimated amount of and share of Federal 21 spending constituted by each category of 22 spending on children; 23 ‘‘(iii) for the fiscal year for which the 24 budget of the President is submitted, the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 2133 IS amount of and share of Federal spending 1 constituted by each category of spending 2 on children under the budget of the Presi- 3 dent; and 4 ‘‘(iv) for the fiscal year after the fiscal 5 year described in clause (iii), the amount 6 of and share of Federal spending con- 7 stituted by each category of spending on 8 children under the budget of the President. 9 ‘‘(E) OPEN DATA AND TRANSPARENCY.— 10 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall 11 publish all of the reports and studies re- 12 quired under this paragraph in a publicly 13 accessible format, including through— 14 ‘‘(I) the dashboard described in 15 clause (ii); and 16 ‘‘(II) the open data portal de- 17 scribed in clause (iii). 18 ‘‘(ii) DASHBOARD.—The Director 19 shall develop and maintain on an internet 20 website available to the public a tool (com- 21 monly referred to as a ‘dashboard’) that— 22 ‘‘(I) highlights the key indicators 23 identified in the reports and studies 24 required under this paragraph; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 2133 IS ‘‘(II) uses visualization tools to 1 assist the public in understanding 2 trends in spending on children over 3 periods of time. 4 ‘‘(iii) OPEN DATA PORTAL.—The Di- 5 rector shall develop and maintain an inter- 6 net website available to the public that— 7 ‘‘(I) provides raw quantitative 8 data relating to spending on children 9 contained in reports and studies re- 10 quired under this paragraph; 11 ‘‘(II) provides that data in a 12 widely accessible file format that al- 13 lows the public to analyze the data; 14 and 15 ‘‘(III) categorizes that data by 16 budget account.’’. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2133.IS S2133 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS