Murray secured $1.5 million to expand the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe’s Child Development Center in Fiscal Year 2023; Murray is fighting to secure $943,000 for the YMCA of Snohomish County to expand access to early childhood education in Fiscal Year 2024
Murray is currently negotiating final spending bills for Fiscal Year 2024 with her counterparts in the House and Senate and fighting for the strongest possible federal investments in child care under tough fiscal constraints
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL FROM SNOQUALMIE INDIAN TRIBE CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER AQUÍ***
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL FROM YMCA SNOHOMISH AQUÍ***
Snoqualmie, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, visited the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe Child Development Center to tour their facilities and discuss the child care crisis Tribal and rural communities are facing. Murray then visited the YMCA of Snohomish County to tour the facilities and the drop-in daycare room, and met with early childhood education volunteers and educators to discuss the child care crisis and federal efforts to combat this crisis.
“I’m so glad I was able to secure funding to expand the Snoqualmie Tribe’s child care center, but there is so much more that needs to be done,” dijo el senador Murray. “As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, you can bet I’ll do everything I can to tackle the child care crisis and invest in our early education workforce. I am continuing to pursue every legislative opportunity available to me to make child care more affordable for parents, ensure child care workers are paid a fair wage, and help our kids get the high-quality early childhood education opportunities they deserve.”
Senator Murray toured the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe Child Development Center to hear about Native Culture Curriculum Integration, read a book to a preschool class, and met with staff members to discuss the need for child care access in rural communities. Murray secured $1.5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending through Fiscal Year 2023 government funding for the Snoqualmie Tribe to expand the center to meet the increased demand for child care services in Snoqualmie and neighboring communities.
Later, at the YMCA of Snohomish County, Murray discussed her continued efforts fighting to secure investments into child care at the federal level, as well as her work to secure $943,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending for the YMCA of Snohomish County to expand their child care programs as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 government spending bills. An estimated 80 percent of Snohomish county residents live in an extreme child care desert, and there are only 62 slots of child care for every 100 infants, toddlers, or preschoolers whose parents work, far below the state average of 79 slots per 100 children.
“You’re looking at a former preschool teacher who is fighting to make every bit of progress possible to address the child care crisis in Snohomish and all across our state,” dijo el senador Murray. “The bottom line is that we have a crisis on our hands. I hear nonstop from families—and from small business owners and so many others—about how child care isn’t just unaffordable, it’s also really hard to find.”
“As I’ve said many times: we need all hands-on deck to tackle this problem—and that’s exactly what I’m fighting to do in the Senate. As I negotiate final spending bills for this fiscal year and work to protect national investments in child care, I am also working hard to bring home nearly $1 million to help the YMCA of Snohomish County expand their child care programs,” Murray continuó.
“From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Snoqualmie region has had a severe shortage of childcare options,” said Robert de los Angeles, Chairman of the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe. “With the funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Fund that Senator Murray assisted in securing, the Snoqualmie Tribal Childcare Center underwent an expansion and is better able to meet the critical need for accessible childcare services to our region. We thank Senator Murray for her efforts in securing this funding and her continued dedication to the children and families of Washington State. We are proud to stand with Bright Horizons and Senator Murray in this endeavor, highlighting the importance of community, care, and culture in nurturing the next generation.”
“Bright Horizons is appreciative of Senator Murray’s support on behalf of the working families of Washington. We are honored with her visit to the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe center and her efforts to bring attention to the important topic of early education and care,” said Amy Boehringer, Director of the Bright Horizons-Snoqualmie Tribe Child Development Center.
“We are proud of our legacy of service in Snohomish County and consider it a privilege to provide families with high-quality, affordable child care,” said Peyton Tune, President and CEO, YMCA of Snohomish County. “We are grateful for the attention and collaboration of Senator Murray and her focus on alleviating the challenges of working parents. We are committed to expanding access, so all children who need care can thrive in a safe, nurturing environment.”
A former preschool teacher herself, Senator Murray has led the fight to comprehensively tackle the child care crisis in Congress—using every tool at her disposal to make progress for families as the top Democrat on the HELP Committee and now as Senate Appropriations Chair. She continues to work to build the support needed to pass her Ley de cuidado infantil para familias trabajadoras, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need.
Murray has also successfully pushed to boost existing federal child care funding through annual appropriations—and as Appropriations Chair, is pushing to keep up the momentum despite the tight fiscal constraints posed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Last Congress, Senator Murray secured a aumento 30% in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) for Fiscal Year 2023 as chair of the LHHS subcommittee. Murray boosted funding for the CCDBG program in the Senate funding bill she despejado out of Committee last summer in a 26-2 vote. She is currently negotiating final spending bills for Fiscal Year 2024 with her counterparts in the House and Senate and fighting for the strongest possible federal investments in child care.
Senator Murray was also instrumental in ensuring Congress took action when the pandemic forced the child care sector to the brink of collapse. She authored the stabilization provisions in the American Rescue Plan and helped secure a historic $24 billion in stabilization funds and an additional $15 billion for the CCDBG program. A reporte by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers found that the child care stabilization program Senator Murray and congressional Democrats aprobado saved families with young children who rely on paid child care about $1,250 per child per year and helped hundreds of thousands of women with children enter or rejoin the workforce more quickly. The program helped 220,000 child care providers keep their doors open and reached 96% of counties nationwide—helping to protect child care for as many as 10 million kids nationwide. But now that the funding expired at the end of September 2023, the sector is once again left with even fewer resources—with terrible consequences for families and communities nationwide.
An October 2023 encuesta of child care providers and families shows that 29% of families reported their child care tuition costs went up in the preceding month, 28% of child care providers who ran out of stabilization funding had to cut wages or were unable to sustain salary increases, and 24% reported they were now serving fewer children.
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