Policy Update: President Obama Releases Detailed Budget
President Obama’s detailed budget for Fiscal Year 2010 makes investments critical to the well-being of women and their families, especially in the areas of health care and education. Yet the fine print also retains restrictions on reproductive health.
Overall, the budget represents an important change in direction from the past eight years. However, given the enormous challenges that families and communities are facing, this budget could and should do even more to address rising needs. For more information, visit NWLC's website.
Some highlights of how the budget affects women and families include:
- Health Care: The President’s budget brings the nation one step closer to making health care reform that meets the needs of women and their families a reality this year. It creates a reserve fund of more than $600 billion, which will serve as a “down payment” on health reform.
- Reproductive Health: The budget eliminates wasteful abstinence-only programs and allows states to provide more support for contraception through the Medicaid program. Unfortunately, the budget retains harmful and unjust restrictions on the use of public funds for abortion care and provides only level or insufficient funding increases for several programs that provide essential services for women, including Title X family planning.
- Child Care and Early Education: The President’s budget funds several new early childhood initiatives. However, the budget provides only a modest increase for Head Start, and no increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to supplement temporary funding for 2009 and 2010 in the Economic Recovery Act. Full details are available on NWLC's website.
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