Budd Should “Look At His Own Voting Record and Start Making Better Spending Choices for North Carolina’s Children About Whom He Claims to Care So Much”

After Congressman Budd sent an article to Governor Cooper “demanding that the governor detail ‘procedures in place to protect children in North Carolina schools,’” a new article  slammed Budd for “paying lip service” to these concerns after voting repeatedly against “bipartisan” bills that “would actually allocate money… to programs designed to prevent child abuse…”

The article notes Budd’s repeated votes against child abuse prevention, including voting against the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and the American Rescue Plan which provided funding to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and Community Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) programs. 

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IndyWeek: To Address Child Abuse, Budd Should Vote to Put Money Where His Mouth Is

By Jane Porter

• Wannabe U.S. Senator Ted Budd has a lot of thoughts about child abuse in public schools—so many, in fact, that he directed a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper demanding that the governor detail “procedures in place to protect children in North Carolina schools.”
• Here’s the rub, though: as a three-term sitting member of Congress, instead of paying lip service, Budd has had ample opportunity to vote for bills that would actually allocate money, some $890 million, to programs designed to prevent child abuse and to help victims of child abuse heal.
• And guess what? Budd passed.
• In 2021, Budd voted against the bipartisan House Resolution 485, the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, that authorizes $540 million to expanding services related to child abuse prevention and research programs through 2027.
• The resolution cleared the House in a 345-73 vote (Budd and 72 other Republicans voted nay) and allocates $270 million to expanding child abuse prevention services to more than 3 million children each year. It also allocates $270 million for new research and support for state child protective services agencies to expand their services.
• Additionally, the resolution would establish a national electronic registry of child abuse cases, seek to address racial bias across the child welfare system—specifically for children whose parents struggle with addiction—and expand physical and mental healthcare services.
• During the pandemic, when rates of child abuse were known to have been increasing as children couldn’t attend school and families were avoiding emergency room visits, the American Rescue Plan provided $350 million for child abuse prevention programs, including Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and Community Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) programs.

• Budd derided the American Rescue Plan as “a liberal wishlist,” but it allocated $100 million in supplemental funding for CAPTA grants which provide funds to states to improve their child protective services systems. North Carolina received more than $3 million in CAPTA grants from the bill, and that money was used to fund programs to prevent child abuse and for community services.
• Budd would be better off to ask not what Gov. Cooper is doing to protect children in North Carolina schools, but to take a look at his own voting record and start making better spending choices for North Carolina’s children about whom he claims to care so much.

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