middle-income students, including students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) such as Hispanic-serving institutions and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions. It will increase the Pell Grant by $1,475, alongside an additional $400 increase in the Budget, for the largest one-time increase in the grant’s history. And, it will invest in our teachers as well as our students, improving teacher training and support so that our schools become engines of growth at every level.
- Provide Direct Support to Children and Families. The American Families Plan will provide direct support to families to ensure that low- and middle-income families spend no more than seven percent of their income on child care, and that the child care they access is of high-quality. It will also provide direct support to workers and families by creating a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program that will bring the American system in line with competitor nations that offer paid leave programs. And, the plan will provide critical nutrition assistance to families who need it most and expand access to healthy meals to our Nation’s students – dramatically reducing childhood hunger.
- Extend Tax Cuts for Families with Children and American Workers. The American Families Plan will extend key tax cuts in the American Rescue Plan that benefit lower- and middle-income workers and families, including the expansions of the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
- Strengthening Health Care. The American Families Plan will also extend the expanded health insurance tax credits in the American Rescue Plan. These improvements are lowering premiums for 9 million current enrollees by an average of $50 per person per month and making them permanent will let an estimated four million uninsured people gain coverage. The American Families Plan also makes historic investments to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality. The Plan will also support the families of veterans receiving health care services.
Beyond the American Families Plan, the Budget also calls on Congress to take action this year to further strengthen health care by lowering prescription drug costs and expanding and improving health coverage. The President’s health care agenda includes cutting prescription drug costs by letting Medicare negotiate prices; reducing deductibles for ACA marketplace plans; improving Medicare benefits; creating a public option and giving people age 60 and older the option for people to enroll in Medicare; and closing the Medicaid coverage gap to help millions of uninsured Americas gain health insurance.
REINVESTING IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR NATION’S STRENGTH
Over the past decade, due in large measure to overly restrictive budget caps, the Nation significantly underinvested in crucial public services, benefits, and protections. To truly build back better, our country must also begin to reverse these trends and reinvest in core functions of Government—and that’s exactly what the President’s Budget does through targeted discretionary investments across a range of key areas. The Budget:
- Makes Historic Investments in High-Poverty Schools. The Budget proposes a historic $36.5 billion investment in Title I schools, a $20 billion increase from the 2021 enacted level. This investment would provide historically under-resourced schools with the funding needed to deliver a high-quality education to all of their students.
