As Congress makes progress on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, Democrats turn their attention to the sizable $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. The bill includes major pieces of President Biden’s Build Back Better platform and the American Families and Jobs Plans. Some moderate Democrats have voiced concerns about the size and scope of the package—foretelling of difficult negotiations ahead.
As lawmakers begin those discussions, however, we should not forget about a group that doesn’t get a seat at the table for policy debates: the United States’ more than 73 million children. The reconciliation package should prioritize investments in kids, not just to equalize our relatively low rates of spending on youth, but because doing so has huge shared benefits and among the highest rates of return for any social investment.
