Media Contact:
Gina Davis, gdavis@zerotothree.org, 202-864-2934
Morgan Brill, mbrill@westendstrategy.com, 845-596-5328
WASHINGTON—ZERO TO THREE, a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life, warns that the Senate’s version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” makes an already dangerous proposal even more devastating for families with young children. Chief Policy Officer Melissa Boteach issued the following statement:
“This legislation robs millions of babies and toddlers of a strong start in life, gutting their access to healthcare and nutrition, instilling fear and chaos in their families and communities through draconian anti-immigrant measures, and raising costs for their families and caregivers.
The House bill is already a five-alarm fire for babies and toddlers; the Senate bill dumps gasoline on the flame. This proposal increases funding for family separation and detention—paid for by raising the cost of families’ healthcare and groceries and gutting essential supports they rely on. The bill imposes sweeping new bureaucratic hurdles for Medicaid and SNAP that will strip health care from millions of people and will make food unaffordable for millions more. These are not ‘efficiency’ measures.
This bill is a real-time attempt to reverse decades of bipartisan progress for children’s health and well-being. Families will be forced to choose between working and caring for a medically fragile infant, between keeping the lights on and taking a child to the doctor.
The hurts won’t stop there. With new billion-dollar budget holes for states and hospitals, pediatricians and OB/GYN wards will close their doors. Basic services from child care to programs that protect babies at risk of abuse or neglect will be threatened. If this bill becomes law, it will be our communities – and the youngest children within them – that pay the biggest price.
It’s not too late for lawmakers to reverse course and invest in, not take away from, babies and their families.”
Individuals can contact their lawmakers here.
