Fulfilling the President’s funding request could help serve 183k kids across Washington state, per new White House estimates
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden, and White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein to discuss what fulfilling the President’s request for supplemental child care funding would mean for families in all 50 states. During the call, Senator Murray underscored that child care is a top concern for families, a top economic challenge, and Congress must act on the President’s request.
According to new estimates released by the White House today, if the President’s child care request is fulfilled by Congress as Senator Murray is pushing to do, Washington state could see $244 million in child care stabilization funding, which would serve an estimated 183,000 kids.
“Without support, our child care providers are staring down some very impossible decisions—laying off staff, cutting child care slots, raising prices for families, or just simply shutting their doors because they have no other choice,” said Senator Murray. “So this is a huge problem for working parents. They are already struggling and they are going to be pushed out of the workforce if we don’t have these child care stabilization funds.”
“I’m really glad we have a President in the White House who truly gets that child care must be at the top of our agenda, and I will be working with Rosa and others to try and get this supplemental bill through both houses to make sure we have the funding we need,” said Senator Murray.
A former preschool teacher herself, Senator Murray has led the fight to 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. Senator Murray was 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 alongside Congresswoman DeLauro and helped secure a historic $24 billion in stabilization funds and an additional $15 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the stabilization funds have kept over 220,000 child care providers across the country afloat, sustaining child care for up to 10 million children—but those funds expired at the end of September. One third of child care providers who received a stabilization grant said their child care program would have closed permanently without the grants.
Senator Murray has also successfully pushed to boost existing federal child care funding through annual appropriations—and as Chair, is pushing to keep up the momentum despite the tight fiscal constraints posed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Last year, Murray secured a 30% increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant as chair of the LHHS subcommittee, and she has boosted funding for the program by $700 million in the Senate funding bill she cleared out of Committee this summer in a 26-2 vote. She is also continuing to work to build the support needed to pass her Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“I’ve been fighting for child care since before I got into politics—as a preschool teacher, as a parent, as a state legislator.
“And just last month when I was home, I visited a child care center at Shoreline Community College—where I actually used to teach—where I heard from families firsthand about how incredibly hard it is to find child care that is available and one that they can actually afford.
“This is just so important to our families. It’s important to our entire economy, and it’s been broken for a very long time and now the sector is just hanging by a thread.
“Which is why I’ve worked so hard with Rosa and others—President Biden, Democrats—when we passed the child care stabilization funding which was such a lifeline helping 220,000 providers keep their doors open and serve as many as 10 million kids.
“But that funding has expired—and we’ve got to act on President Biden’s request for supplemental funds soon.
“So, let’s be clear: this supplemental is to keep the child care system afloat.
“We have to do a lot more to rebuild child care in America—like pass our Child Care for Working Families Act but what we are talking about today is really urgent funding to keep the child care industry from crumbling.
“And the fallout if we do not act is going to echo through our entire economy.
“Because, as I’m sure you’ve heard, without support, our child care providers are staring down some very impossible decisions—laying off staff, cutting child care slots, raising prices for families, or just simply shutting their doors because they have no other choice.
“So this is a huge problem for working parents. They are already struggling and they are going to be pushed out of the workforce if we don’t have these child care stabilization funds.
“So we do not want people to lose jobs, we don’t want to worsen the economy—this would be a big hit to it. And the only thing we can do and the most important thing we can do is pass these emergency funds.
“So I’m really glad we have a President in the White House who truly gets that child care must be at the top of our agenda, and I will be working with Rosa and others to try and get this supplemental bill through both houses to make sure we have the funding we need.”
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