Get to know a Federal Agency – Introducing the Administration for Children and Families

Federal Government Departments & Agencies

By Ed Haas Last updated Nov 1, 2023

There are 630 federal departments, agencies, and commissions. Approximately 400 have regulatory power. Half could be eliminated and most of the nation wouldn’t notice. The loss of liberty and freedom in the United States is proportional to the size and scope of the federal government. The larger the federal government gets; the fewer the rights the 50 states, and the people, retain.

Get to know a Federal Agency – Introducing the Administration for Children and Families

HHS Awards an Additional $8.2M to Expand Pilot Diaper Distribution Program -Total Investment of $16.2M supports first-ever federally funded diaper distribution program for low-income families.

Who knew a constitutional function of the federal government is to provide diapers for babies? On May 2, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration of Children and Families (ACF), announced an additional $8.2 million to support the first-ever federally funded diaper distribution program for low-income families. Initially launched in September 2022, the Diaper Distribution Demonstration and Research Pilot (Diaper Distribution Pilot) will add an additional six states and one tribe to the original grant recipients to address widespread diaper need. This new allocation brings the total funding for the pilot to $16.2 million, which will support projects in a total of twelve states and two tribes.[1]

Welcome to the Administration for Children and Families! The ACF funds state, territory, local, and tribal organizations to provide family assistance (welfare), child support, child care, Head Start, child welfare, and other programs relating to children and families. The ACF administers more than 60 programs – making it the second largest agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) was created on April 15, 1991, under the authority of section 6 of the Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1953. The plan allowed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to merge the Office of Human Development Services with the Family Support Administration, along with the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program. The newly-formed organization was called the Administration for Children and Families. ACF is the United States’ largest human services administration.[2]

In the FY 2023 President’s budget request for ACF, President Biden including both mandatory and discretionary appropriations – $73.8 billion in budget authority, an increase of $7.3 billion from the FY 2022 enacted level. $73.8 billion in budget authority! $73.8 billion is a big pile of money! The ACF claims that by partnering with states and communities, its funding provides critical assistance to vulnerable populations and helps families achieve prosperity and independence. Such a ridiculous claim! If any welfare program helps a family “achieve prosperity”, something has gone awry within the allotment computation methodology. “Independence” from need isn’t really independence if chained to a tree. A chained hungry dog will wag his tail if a food bowl is placed within his reach. A chained fed dog is temporarily free from hunger, but he is far from free.

The ACF also helps to find safe and supportive families for abused children. It helps parents find jobs. It’s working to preserve Native American languages. The ACF also works with troubled teens. There are other federal agencies doing the same work. Nobody can debate whether helping parents and children in need is a good thing. It most certainly is the right thing to do. The question is whether the federal government should be involved in the process. States, local governments, non-profits, and the general goodwill of neighbors and friends cannot be dismissed as incapable of delivering what the federal government is now providing.

The ACF is also engaged in emergency response and recovery. That’s the primary purpose of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA’s budget for 2023 is approximately $25 billion. There are actually thirty-eight federal departments and agencies that make up what FEMA refers to as the Recovery Support Function Leadership Group (RSFLG). That’s [38] federal departments and agencies all getting taxpayer dollars to respond to any national emergency and disaster. If all the funding these 38 departments and agencies receive were to be added together, it would not be surprising if the total exceeds $350 billion annually. The cost of redundancy at the federal level of government is staggering. If the ACF and HHS was removed from the business of emergency response and recovery, it’s likely there are ten or more other agencies within the RSFLG ready to provide similar recovery services.

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The ACF has immersed itself into what the federal government calls “equity issues”. So have all other federal departments and agencies to varying degrees. As President Biden wrote in his Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, “equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy and our diversity is one of our country’s greatest strengths. But for too many, the American Dream remains out of reach. Entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, public and private institutions, have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities. Our nation faces converging economic, health and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated existing inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism…the federal government’s goal in advancing equity is to provide everyone with the opportunity to reach their full potential.”[3]

It is a function of the federal government to protect the liberty and freedom of all Americans regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and economic class. There is still much work to be done. Yet the money wasted by the federal government to achieve “equity” in America, because of redundancy upon redundancy, is not delivering to the American people a strong return on its investment. There are too many federal government employees doing the exact same things, just at different addresses. The size of the federal workforce, aside from the military, should be cut by half, without giving up a single service to the American people.

The ACF is a large and complex federal agency that provides grant money to states and organizations aligned with their work. The opportunity for waste and fraud when there are so many moving parts is constant. It also is engaged in so much work that was not part of the original intent of the federal government as expressed in the U.S. Constitution. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams would have rejected the idea that the federal government should pay for daycare. Daycare! The federal government of the United States of America, through the ACF, will pay out $11,800,000,000 for daycare. That’s $11.8 billion! There are probably other federal agencies funding daycare too. This helps to explain why the average cost of center-based daycare in the United States is $11,666 per year ($972 a month).[4]

Here’s a little something for Americans opposed to the 6 million migrants who have illegally crossed our southern border during the Biden Administration, said they were seeking asylum, were given a court date for far in the future, and then released into our country. The ACF has budgeted $8,856,000,000 for Refugee and Entrant Assistance. That’s $8.86 billion of your taxpayer dollars going to help some people who should not even be in this country. How many other federal departments and agencies also have billions and billions of dollars for the immigrants pouring over our southern border? Travel to any urban city or poor rural parts of this country and see if there are Americans who would rather their government give some of that money to them instead.