Casey to re-introduce Five Freedoms for America’s Children legislation

WILKES-BARRE — As U.S. Sen. Bob Casey prepares to re-introduce his Five Freedoms for America’s Children legislation, he said throughout America, children lack health care, economic security, education, adequate nutrition and safety.

The senator talked about the plan with the Times Leader on Friday.

“In the 21st century, every child in America should have the freedom to reach their full potential,” said Casey, D-Scranton. “As Americans, it is our solemn obligation to help families ensure every child has the support they need, yet we have failed them time and again.”

Casey said in recent years, corrupt forces have perverted the basic notion of freedom, while creating a government that works for corporate interests rather than our children’s best interests.

“The promise of opportunity and freedom for America’s children must be an urgent societal and governmental priority,” Casey said.

He then quoted his father, former Gov. Bob Casey.

“Only government, when all else fails, can safeguard the vulnerable and powerless. When it reneges (sic) on that obligation, freedom becomes a hollow word. A hard-working person unable to find work and support his or her family is not free. A person for whom sickness means financial ruin, with no health insurance to soften the blow, is not free. A malnourished child, an uneducated child, a child trapped in foster care — these children are not free. And without a few breaks along the way from government, such children in most cases will never be truly free.”

Casey said there are 317,000 people living in Luzerne County and 20% are under 18.

“That’s 63,000 children or young adults,” Casey said. “When you consider that, it tells you the work we have to do to lift up children. These are big stakes.”

COVID-19 pandemic

impact on children

Casey said the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted children’s lives, educations, social connectivity, mental health and access to usual sources of support (including child care, schools, community services and extended family).

“More children fell into poverty, fell behind at school, experienced hunger, missed preventive health care visits and too many lost loved ones,” Casey said. “Such stress during childhood can adversely affect brain development, socio-emotional growth, mental health and academic achievement.”

Casey said the Five Freedoms would reverse these trends and ensure childhoods that are safe, healthy and enriching, so that our children have the opportunity to thrive.

“To that end, this document sets forth a detailed plan to secure the blessings of freedom for the children of today and tomorrow,” Casey said. “This plan identifies five basic freedoms that our society must guarantee to our nation’s children, and recommends policy changes to ensure those freedoms for all children.”

The Five Freedoms

Casey’s plan is as follows:

• Freedom to be healthy: Every child in America should have quality, affordable health care.

This proposal recommends automatic Medicaid eligibility from birth through age 18.

• Freedom to be economically secure: Every child in America should have the opportunity for economic security, and to earn a living wage when they reach adulthood.

This proposal recommends permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit and allowing parents to claim it monthly, and creating children’s saving accounts that are seeded annually with $500 in government contributions, that children can later use in pursuit of a post-secondary education, home ownership or a business enterprise

• Freedom to learn: Every family in America should have access to quality, affordable child care and early learning programs.

This proposal recommends an additional annual investment of $7 billion to expand affordable child care and early learning programs; an additional investment of $18 billion annually to ensure that Head Start can cover all eligible 3- to 5-year-old children; and a permanent expansion of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to help working families cover the cost of child care.

• Freedom from hunger: No child in America should go to bed hungry or worried about their next meal.

This proposal recommends enhancing automatic certification of more children for school meal programs, expanding universal school lunch and breakfast, and increasing retroactive reimbursement of school meals for eligible children who were not initially certified for school meals.

• Freedom to be safe from harm: Every state in the nation should have the resources necessary to strengthen families, prevent child abuse and neglect and investigate and prosecute crimes against children.

This proposal recommends the following investments: $250 million per year in community-based child abuse prevention; $250 million per year for child protective services; and $250 million per year to state Attorney General offices to prioritize investigation and prosecution of crimes against children.

Casey said the policies he outlined, working in conjunction with one another, will have a substantial and positive impact on the well-being of children — all children.

“However, no proposal or document can reasonably cover all of the determinants of child well-being, nor propose policies related to each of them,” Casey said. “Thus, the goal of the Five Freedoms for America’s Children is to re-imagine our approach to public policy that affects children, and to create a framework to talk about those policies and how they address the needs of children in America.”

Casey said there are 4 million-plus children in the US who are not insured.

He said the cost to implement the Five Freedom plan depends on how much of it is included in President Biden’s American Families Plan. But he estimated all of the Five Freedoms plan to cost around $1 trillion.

“This is a big proposal,” he said. “It’s a big investment.”

Casey first rolled out the set of bills last year, but this latest effort comes as President Joe Biden unveils his American Families Plan — the nearly $2 trillion framework focusing on child care, education and other so-called “soft infrastructure.”

Casey said he plans to roll out the series of bills is early to mid-June as lawmakers debate the infrastructure packages.

“We hope by Labor Day we will have passed some version of the American Families Plan,” Casey said.