Protecting America’s Families

ur first challenge is to cherish our children and to strengthen America’s families. Family is the foundation of American life. If we have stronger families, we will have a stronger America.”

—President Bill Clinton

President Clinton governs on the side of families. Strong families are vital to our children and our nation. President Clinton is working to strengthen our families by providing tax relief to working families, investing in our children’s education, reducing crime, and helping families move from welfare to work. The Clinton Administration is committed to protecting children, improving their quality of health, encouraging companies to adopt family-friendly practices and strengthening parents’ capacity to nurture healthy families.

President Clinton is supporting families by:

	Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to provide tax relief for 40 million working Americans.
	Signing the Family and Medical Leave Act to enable workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a sick family member without fear of losing their jobs.
	Giving parents greater control over what their children watch on television by requiring the “V-chip” in all new televisions.
	Protecting our children's health by proposing targeted measures to cut off children's access to tobacco products and to reduce their appeal to children.
	Signing the Health Insurance Reform Act (Kassebaum-Kennedy Bill) which expands and protects access to health insurance by limiting exclusions for pre-existing conditions and allowing individuals to take their health insurance with them when they change or lose their jobs.
	Fighting for and signing into law the first increase in the minimum wage in five years to reward work and responsibility.
	Establishing a Childhood Immunization Initiative to increase vaccinations and help ensure healthier futures for all children. In 1995, the immunization rate for children reached 75%, a record high.
	Strengthening laws to collect a record $11 billion in child support in 1995 through tougher enforcement, almost a 40% increase over 1992. President Clinton issued an Executive Order to help track down federal workers who fail to pay child support.
	Expanding and improving Head Start. The President has increased funding for Head Start by almost $800 million to serve tens of thousands of additional children.
	Investing in education. Through Goals 2000, President Clinton supported developing standards of excellence for students while encouraging grassroots local reforms to improve our schools.
	Making our communities and schools safer. President Clinton won passage of the tough and smart Crime Bill, which is putting 100,000 more police officers on the street. The President also won passage of the Brady Bill, which has prevented more than 60,000 people with criminal records from buying handguns. He enacted the Gun-Free Schools Act, which requires the immediate expulsion for one year of any student who brings a gun to school.
	Ending welfare as we know it by signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. This bill includes time-limits and work requirements, gives states incentives to create jobs for welfare recipients, increases funding for child care, strengthens child support enforcement, and maintains the federal guarantee of nutrition programs and Medicaid coverage for pregnant women, children, and the disabled. Even before signing national welfare reform, the President granted waivers to 43 states to reform welfare on their own -- making work and responsibility a way of life for 75 percent of all welfare recipients.
	Working with community, business, and religious leaders to form the National Campaign to Reduce Teen Pregnancy, which will marshal private resources across the country to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
	Challenging the media and entertainment industry to create movies, CDs, and television shows more suitable for children. The President has reached agreements with the television industry to develop a voluntary ratings system and to broadcast at least three hours per week of educational programming.
	Increasing funding to improve and expand child care services in every budget submitted to Congress. The Clinton Administration has also streamlined management of four major child care programs into a single Child Care Bureau -- to link services and programs, reduce red tape, improve quality, and give states more flexibility
	Creating a National Child Care Information Center for the public and highlighting solutions for including children with disabilities in child care.
	Creating the Healthy Child Care Campaign to create partnerships between the health care and child care communities to ensure safe and healthy environments for children.
	Working to encourage adoption, including adoption of children with special needs, and to reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care. President Clinton strongly supports the adoption tax credit. He enacted the Multiethnic Placement Act to remove barriers to adoption so that more children live in loving and safe homes.
	Working with 48 state court systems to improve operations so that children spend less time in foster care.
	Standing firm throughout the budget debate to protect funds for adoption, foster care, child abuse and neglect, Medicaid and Social Security—programs that are critical for many adoptive families and children.
	Putting the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) on a full funding path to reach 7.5 million participants by the end of fiscal year 1997. This program works: Every dollar invested in WIC has saved up to $4.25 in preventive health care costs.
	Reforming the School Lunch Program to ensure healthy school meals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Team Nutrition—a network of public-private partnerships—improves the health of children by promoting food choices for a healthy diet through schools, families, communities and the media. There are now more than 6,000 Team Nutrition Schools across the nation.

Building on Our Progress

America is moving in the right direction. The crime rate is down, welfare rolls and food stamp participation are falling and the teen pregnancy rate is dropping.

President Clinton is continuing to improve the health and futures of our children and families by:

	Is working to preserve and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid.
	Remaining committed to providing families with a $500 per child tax credit.
	Proposing his “America Reads” Challenge to ensure that every child in American can read independently by the end of the third grade. The President’s new initiative helps parents, as their children’s first teachers, and the entire community, to invest in reading success. The President and his Administration will mobilize 1 million community volunteer tutors, expand Head Start, and challenge both the non-profit and private sectors to help our children read.
	Continuing to expand the accessibility of child care information and services to parents, expanding child care funding to low-income working families, and working with states to improve the quality of services.
	Continuing to champion programs that break down barriers to adoption through recruitment of adoptive and foster care parents, support the placement of special-needs children and reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care.

Meeting Our Challenges Protecting Our Values