Focus on Children Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1780 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 11, 2019 Ms. HARRIS (for herself, Mr. MENENDEZ, and Mr. CASEY) introduced the fol- lowing 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 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1780 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 ‘child’ means an indi- 17 vidual under 19 years of age; 18 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘key indicator’ includes 19 information relating to the outlays de- 20 scribed in subclause (I), (II), (III), or (IV) 21 of clause (iv); and 22 ‘‘(iv) the term ‘spending on children’ 23 includes— 24 ‘‘(I) outlays under an entitlement 25 authority that go directly to children; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1780 IS ‘‘(II) outlays for a Federal pro- 1 gram or initiative that, consistent 2 with the mission of the program or 3 initiative, delivers services exclusively 4 to children; 5 ‘‘(III) outlays for a Federal pro- 6 gram or initiative that, while not serv- 7 ing children directly, has as a core 8 mission goal the improvement of the 9 health, education, welfare, or general 10 well-being of children; and 11 ‘‘(IV) for a Federal program or 12 initiative that delivers services to both 13 children and adults, the portion of 14 outlays under the program or initia- 15 tive attributable to providing benefits 16 for children, based on the best avail- 17 able data. 18 ‘‘(B) STUDIES.—At the request of the 19 Chairman or Ranking Member of a committee 20 of the Senate or the House of Representatives, 21 the Director shall, to the extent practicable, 22 conduct a study of a bill, joint resolution, 23 amendment, amendment between the Houses, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1780 IS or conference report containing changes in 1 spending on children. 2 ‘‘(C) ANNUAL REPORTS ON SPENDING.— 3 Not later than 15 days after the last day of 4 each fiscal year, the Director shall submit to 5 Congress a report that includes— 6 ‘‘(i) information and data regarding 7 spending on children under appropriation 8 Acts, including Acts making supplemental 9 appropriations and continuing resolutions, 10 for that fiscal year; 11 ‘‘(ii) information and data regarding 12 spending on children under an entitlement 13 authority for that fiscal year; 14 ‘‘(iii) the share of Federal spending 15 that constitutes spending on children 16 under appropriation Acts, including Acts 17 making supplemental appropriations and 18 continuing resolutions, for that fiscal year; 19 and 20 ‘‘(iv) the share of Federal spending 21 that constitutes spending on children 22 under an entitlement authority for that fis- 23 cal year. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1780 IS ‘‘(D) ANNUAL REPORTS ON THE BUDGET 1 OF THE PRESIDENT.—Not later than 15 days 2 after the date on which the President submits 3 to Congress the budget of the President for a 4 fiscal year, the Director shall submit to Con- 5 gress a report on the budget of the President 6 that includes, for the prior fiscal year, the cur- 7 rent fiscal year, the fiscal year for which the 8 budget of the President is submitted, and the 9 ensuing fiscal year— 10 ‘‘(i) a summary of the total amount of 11 the appropriations or new obligational au- 12 thority and outlays requested for spending 13 on children; 14 ‘‘(ii) an estimate of the level of spend- 15 ing on children; 16 ‘‘(iii) an estimate of the share of Fed- 17 eral spending that constitutes spending on 18 children; and 19 ‘‘(iv) an estimate of the date on which 20 Federal spending on children will be less 21 than outlays for interest on the public 22 debt. 23 ‘‘(E) WARNING REPORTS.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1780 IS ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—At the discretion 1 of the Director, the Director may provide 2 a warning report to Congress regarding a 3 fiscal year in which outlays for interest on 4 the public debt will exceed spending on 5 children. 6 ‘‘(ii) CONTENTS OF WARNING RE- 7 PORTS.—The Director may include in a re- 8 port issued under clause (i) a list of pos- 9 sible budgetary options, including, if ap- 10 propriate, the inclusion of reconciliation di- 11 rectives under section 310 in the concur- 12 rent resolution on the budget for a fiscal 13 year, that may be used by Congress in 14 order to prevent such an imbalance be- 15 tween outlays for interest on the public 16 debt and spending on children. 17 ‘‘(F) OPEN DATA AND TRANSPARENCY.— 18 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall 19 publish all of the reports and studies re- 20 quired under this paragraph in a publicly 21 accessible format, including through— 22 ‘‘(I) the dashboard described in 23 clause (ii); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 1780 IS ‘‘(II) the open data portal de- 1 scribed in clause (iii). 2 ‘‘(ii) DASHBOARD.—The Director 3 shall develop and maintain on an internet 4 website available to the public a tool (com- 5 monly referred to as a ‘dashboard’) that— 6 ‘‘(I) highlights the key indicators 7 identified in the reports and studies 8 required under this paragraph; and 9 ‘‘(II) uses visualization tools to 10 assist the public in understanding 11 trends in spending on children over 12 periods of time. 13 ‘‘(iii) OPEN DATA PORTAL.—The Di- 14 rector shall develop and maintain an inter- 15 net website available to the public that— 16 ‘‘(I) provides raw quantitative 17 data relating to spending on children 18 contained in reports and studies re- 19 quired under this paragraph; 20 ‘‘(II) provides that data in a 21 widely accessible file format that al- 22 lows the public to analyze the data; 23 and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 1780 IS ‘‘(III) categorizes that data by 1 budget account.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:23 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1780.IS S1780 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS