Federal policies should encourage marriage and children, says a new Heritage Foundation report that proposes ways to reverse the trends of broken homes, declining marriage rates, and low fertility rates in the United States.
The conservative think tank released the report, titled “Saving America by Saving the Family,” on Thursday, which detailed a set of policy proposals for President Donald Trump and Congress.
Proposals include extending child care benefits to stay-at-home parents, creating new investment accounts and tax credits for newborns, and eliminating all federal marriage penalties.
“There is nothing more important than the future of the American family, and we know that committed, fruitful marriage is the linchpin to its restoration,” Roger Severino, vice president for economic and domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation, said in a statement.
The report calls for investment from private, nonprofit, and government sectors to “back the bedrock of flourishing societies—the traditional family,” said Severino, who is a former director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights.
“Government, in particular, must choose a side,” Severino continued. “It must stop being hostile or indifferent to marriage and family, and become fully supportive in all it does, from rhetoric, to law, to programs, grants, to regulations.”
Marriage rates and fertility rates are falling considerably in the United States, the report noted, with the share of U.S. adults who have married falling to 69% in 2023 from 86% in 1962. The total fertility rate fell to a record-low 1.62 births per woman aged 15-44 in 2023, well below the replacement rate of 2.1, the report added.
The report calls for the president and Congress to build on the “Trump accounts,” which allow parents and their employers to make tax-advantaged contributions for a newborn’s future needs, such as college tuition or home ownership. The Trump accounts were part of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed last year.
The report suggests that Congress create NEST accounts, an acronym for Newlywed Early Starters Trust.
This account would allow one-time $2,500 government deposits into new investment accounts for newborns that would be redeemable upon marriage between the ages of 18 and 30. Unclaimed amounts would be “converted to traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs).”
Currently, the federal government largely provides credits and programs to support parents who pay others for childcare.
But the report references a YouGov survey from November 2023 that found more than two-thirds, 68%, preferred options for parental time at home rather than both parents working full-time outside the home.
So, the report says Congress should make the value programs and tax benefits provided for paid child care available for at-home parental child raising.
“One of the top reasons that Americans cite for having fewer children than they desire is the cost of raising children,” the report says. “Most of these parents and potential parents would prefer to spend more time raising their children at home if they could afford it.”
The report calls for creating a parallel credit to the current $17,670 adoption tax credit. The proposed Family and Marriage, or FAM, tax credit would make those amounts available to married parents for each newborn, with a 25% bonus for families with three or more children.
The report also recommends Trump issue a series of executive orders requiring every grant, contract, policy, regulation, research project, and enforcement action involving the federal government to measure how it helps or harms marriage and family. It says that the order should “block actions that discriminate against family formation and give preference to actions that support American families.”
“Strong families build strong communities, churches, schools, and businesses. Without them, freedom cannot last,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement.
“Heritage is excited to put forth innovative ideas that not only help American families live the good life but also encourage more young American adults to marry and create families of their own,” Roberts continued. “This includes directing our government to stop penalizing marriage, support those who want to get married, reduce waste in Washington, and reward family formation across the country.”
