In response to today’s Senate consideration of the budget reconciliation bill released the following statement:

“At this very moment, Congress is weighing legislation that will decisively and deliberately undermine the health, safety and stability of our nation’s children and grandchildren in order to pay for tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

How on earth did we get here? Lawmakers have rarely made children a priority in budget and policy decisions. But they reach new levels of active, intentional harm with the bill before them today.

This bill will slash more than $900 billion from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which together provide well-baby visits, vaccinations, asthma inhalers, eye glasses, fillings, mental health care, and life-saving treatments to 37 million kids. Here’s a fact: nearly one-third of all children diagnosed with cancer are on Medicaid or CHIP at the time of diagnosis.

The bill also shifts to the states, for the first time, billions of dollars in benefit costs for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — often called SNAP or food stamps — which serves more than 15 million children. States already pay administrative costs for this program and the bill’s architects know full well that adding costs for benefits will force states to cut this vital food assistance. It’s worth noting that children make up nearly 40% of all SNAP recipients.

Even a tax provision supposedly included to help children hurts the poorest among them. The bill would increase the amount of the Child Tax Credit, but only for high-income families. It would deny the new, more generous benefits to low-income children, with 22 million receiving only partial credit or nothing at all. It would also deprive roughly 2.6 million U.S. citizen children of the Child Tax Credit because their caregiver lacks a Social Security number.

Finally, the bill would raise the national debt by $3 trillion, an amount that dwarfs any previous burdens we’ve left to our children. This bill is, in every conceivable way, a direct attack on the nation’s children and grandchildren. We strongly urge each and every senator, regardless of party, to vote for children and the future by voting against this bill.”