Ways to give foster children a brighter future
Plus: Reforming health care and ending the government shutdown; new national statistics on immigration; and join us in D.C. at Freedom & Progress 2025
Ensuring that foster children and their caregivers access federal benefits: Too many foster youth enter adulthood without the resources they need to succeed—and federal and state systems often make their difficult situations worse. States have returned tens of millions of dollars in unused federal funds designed to help these children. Worse, many states seize foster children’s own Social Security benefits. At the same time, foster parents across the country miss out on tax credits and support because of red tape and data gaps. With too few foster homes and high rates of homelessness among youth aging out of care, FREOPP Senior Fellow Dan Lips and Research Assistant Sarah Krause call for action to ensure benefits actually reach foster families. In a new white paper, they urge the Trump administration to streamline access, ban states from seizing children’s benefits, improve data collection, and create a new Foster Care Tax Credit to help recruit and retain foster parents—steps that could help vulnerable children build stable, independent futures.
This bipartisan compromise could end the government shutdown: As Congress debates whether to extend billions in Obamacare subsidies set to expire this year, FREOPP Co-founder and Chairman Avik Roy took to The Washington Post to argue that Republicans have a rare chance to pair short-term subsidy relief with long-overdue bipartisan reforms to make insurance genuinely affordable. He proposes two key changes: allowing insurers to offer greater discounts to younger enrollees to rebalance risk pools, and creating a $10 billion annual reinsurance fund to directly support coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Together, these reforms would lower premiums for both the young and the sick while reducing subsidy costs to taxpayers. Avik contends that Democrats would still preserve protections for preexisting conditions, while Republicans would finally achieve real regulatory reform—making health insurance more affordable for everyone without expanding federal spending indefinitely.
→ Want another case for health care reform? Kimberley Strassel picked up Avik’s arguments in The Wall Street Journal. She writes that, without bipartisan reform, Republicans will remain hostage to a health-care system they once opposed. By acting now, they can steer it toward affordability and freedom.
A record 79 percent of Americans believe immigration is good for the country: A June 2025 Gallup poll shows a dramatic rebound in support for immigration, with 79 percent of Americans saying it is a “good thing” for the country—a record high—and only 30 percent favoring reduced immigration, down sharply from 55 percent last year. The biggest shift came from Republicans, whose opposition to immigration has nearly halved since 2024. FREOPP Visiting Fellow Natalia Dashan notes that this marks a return to the long-term trend of broad public confidence that immigrants strengthen the nation. Economic data reinforce that view: studies from the Federal Reserve and the Cato Institute find that immigrants raise wages, expand job creation, and improve fiscal outcomes. With public sentiment at historic highs, Natalia urges policymakers to focus on reforms that harness immigration’s economic and cultural benefits.
We hope to see you in D.C. later this month! Want to talk about these ideas and more with others who believe in the American Dream and want to ensure that it endures? Join us at our annual Freedom & Progress Conference on November 21, 2025, at the Conrad Hotel in Washington, D.C., to tackle the hard questions: where critics are right about what’s broken—and how freedom-based solutions can fix it. It’s not too late to register—simply visit the conference page at FREOPP.org to view the latest agenda and to sign up.
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