Pew Testifies Before D.C. Council Committee on Health Implications of ‘Baby Bonds’

On May 25, Stefanie Carignan, a senior associate with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Health Impact Project, testified in Washington at a public hearing of the D.C. Council’s Business and Economic Development Committee about the project’s findings on the potential health effects of Bill 24-0236, the Child Wealth Building Act of 2021. The bill would automatically provide a D.C. government-sponsored trust fund, or “baby bond,” for babies born into low- and moderate-income households. Her remarks emphasized the connections between wealth and health status and the bill’s potential impacts on the city’s racial wealth gap.