WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), along with Sens. Ron Wyden, D-(OR), and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, (D-MA), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Tina Smith (D-MN), introduced a new bill allocating mandatory funding to build child care availability over the long term and treat child care like the critical infrastructure that it is for families.
“Closing a child care center not only impacts the children and the
workers at that facility, but it also means parents have to consider other
options like leaving the workforce to ensure their children are cared for. More
often than not, women are the ones making those difficult decisions,” said Brown. “The
pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities in our child care system and made
clear that we need comprehensive investments to get the industry back on solid
footing. Building out our child care infrastructure and investing in the child
care workforce will help strengthen the industry and working families’ economic
security.”
The need for affordable and reliable child care is vital as
working families begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. A national survey
found that a quarter of women who became unemployed during the pandemic
attributed this to a lack of child care. A report by the Center for American Progress estimated
the cost of mothers leaving the workforce and reducing work hours to take care
of their children
to be $64.5 billion per year in lost wages and
economic activity. Investing in a broadly accessible child care system will
provide stability and economic relief, resulting in higher lifetime earnings and savings for women.
The senators’ new child care bill will help close the child
care gap by providing new permanent federal funding to help child care
providers invest in facility upgrades, support new child care providers, help
existing providers expand or upgrade their programs, train and invest in the
child care workforce, and provide other technical and financial support to
child care providers.
The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act
would:
Provide Mandatory Funding to Improve Child Care Supply,
Quality and Affordability: Create a
new $5 billion annual permanent grant program to improve child care supply,
quality and affordability, particularly in areas that lack options for
affordable child care.
The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act is endorsed
by Child Welfare League of America, Our Children Oregon, ZERO TO THREE, Child
Care Aware of America, First Focus Campaign for Children, Save the Children,
National Education Association, National Women’s Law Center, Center for Law and
Social Policy (CLASP), National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC), Family Forward, Early Care & Education Consortium, and Kindercare.
Read more about their support here.
A copy of the bill text is available here.
A one-page summary is available here.
A section-by-section summary is available here.
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