NCIT last updated this blog on April 21, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET.
Released on Friday, April 3, the President’s Budget Request (PBR) for fiscal year 2027 outlines alarming cuts or eliminations across a range of programs that support nutrition, maternal and child health, early care and learning, and more.
Want a quick breakdown of what these proposed cuts mean for infants, toddlers, and families? View our FY2027 appropriations one-pager.
To highlight a few examples:
Nutrition:
- The administration proposes funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at $8 billion, a $200 million cut that may not sustain current caseloads and could lead to waitlists.
Maternal and Child Health:
- The budget proposal includes more than $51million cuts to the Special Projects of Regional and National Significance (SPRANS) portion of the Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services Block Grant. SPRANS supports grantees who provide health care services and screenings for mothers and babies; the program is facing increased strain from rising costs.
- As in the FY26 proposal, the administration again proposes eliminating Healthy Start, which provides public health services to reduce infant and maternal mortality, as well as the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a surveillance system that collects data from mothers before, during and after pregnancy to track health risks and improve outcomes for moms and babies.
Early Care and Learning:
- The administration proposes level funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) at more than $8.8 billion and Head Start/Early Head Start at nearly $12.4 billion, even as both programs face ongoing quality challenges due to chronic underinvestment.
- The administration again proposes eliminating Preschool Development Grants Birth-to-Five (PDG B-5), which help states strengthen and better coordinate early childhood systems and expand access to high-quality child care, and the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS), which helps parents with low income who are enrolled in college afford child care so they can complete their education. Both programs reduce major barriers families face when trying to access child care.
At a time when families with infants and toddlers already face steep barriers to critical services, the White House’s proposal would further scale back the building blocks of a strong start in life.
