Spending on kids to be smaller share

U.S. children may lose out over the next decade even as the federal government spends more on domestic programs, because a smaller share will go to education, health care and other benefits, researchers said on Thursday.

A day after two Democrats introduced a bill to boost health coverage for children, a new report by the Urban Institute showed that children's programs would represent 13 percent of domestic spending by 2017, down from about 15 percent in 2006.

This adds up to billions of dollars.

"If you keep the budget on its current path, children are going to get squeezed," said Eugene Steuerle, a senior fellow at the institute. "To extent you think investment in children is an important policy agenda, you're squeezing and putting enormous pressure on that part of the agenda."

Programs focused on children totaled $333 billion last year and would increase $36 billion by 2017 under current law, the study said. Other domestic spending would rise to $2.4 trillion from $1.8 trillion.

However, Steuerle said that if the low-income health care program known as Medicaid was not included in the total, spending on children would actually decrease by 2017.

Part of the problem is that children's programs often lack automatic funding increases or annual renewal, unlike some major domestic spending, the study said.

"I think the key findings are that investment in children has never been a high federal priority, but it would be one that's going to clearly decline as we move toward the future unless we really get our budget house in order," Steuerle said.

The Bush administration and Congress are working to find ways to provide health care services to 9 million children who have no insurance coverage and resolve complaints from states who fear a shortfall of billions of dollars in aid.

State governors have said the $5 billion in additional funding the Bush administration has pledged for each of the next five years for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is insufficient.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, unveiled legislation on Wednesday with a colleague in the House of Representatives aimed at covering uninsured children through existing programs.

The measure, coauthored by Democrat Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, would give states incentives to expand their existing programs for children's health insurance and would help states identify the estimated 6 million children eligible for public programs but not currently enrolled.