[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E176-E177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DAYCARE FAIRNESS FOR STAY-AT-HOME PARENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. GEORGE P. RADANOVICH

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 11, 1998

  Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, passage of H. Con. Res. 202, the 
Equitable Child Care Resolution, is an important step Congress must 
take to address the child care needs of American families.
  The Equitable Child Care Resolution will ensure that the child care 
discussions by Congress include consideration of the needs of at-home 
parents. Unfortunately, the President's child care proposal fails to 
recognize that almost 70 percent of American families do not pay for 
child care because at-home parents or relatives care for the children. 
These families--many of which are low to middle income--have devised 
creative solutions to meet their child care needs, because they would 
rather have a parent, relative, or friend care for their children than 
an institution. However, their solutions often entail a sizeable 
sacrifice of family income. The President's proposal simply ignores 
this 70 percent of families with children and instead focuses on the 
remaining 30 percent.
  During consideration of child care policy, it is also important that 
Congress not create another large federal bureaucracy. Such a 
bureaucracy, coupled with a subsidy for child care, would create the 
incentive for increased dependence on, and control by, Washington 
bureaucrats. The effect would be to move more children into 
institutionalized day care. Parents have the right to determine what 
kind of child care that is best for them, whether parent-based, church-
based, community-based, neighborhood-based, or institution-based. They 
should not be pushed into one type of care through social engineering 
subsidies. Moreover, the President's plan would unequally distribute 
benefits, tilting them toward families where both parents choose to 
work, while taxing those who decide to stay at home.
  A more effective solution would be to provide an across-the-board tax 
reduction--such as expanding the $500 per child tax credit recently 
enacted by Congress. We should expand the range of choices available to 
parents, not the government's control over child care. Parents should 
be equipped with the resources, responsibility, and personal control to 
raise their children.
  The federal government currently sponsors numerous programs to help 
families with children. Since 1995, Republicans in Congress have 
enacted major reforms to help families afford child care. The welfare 
reform law has merged four programs into the better and more effective 
Child Care Development Block Grant. This block grant allows localities 
to respond to the different needs of our families, giving parents 
choices through vouchers. Overall, welfare reform has increased child 
care funds for our country's neediest families by $4 billion. In 
addition, the Child Development Tax Credit provides $14 billion over 
the next five years to families with child care expenses.
  My goal is to help restore the central role of families in society 
while addressing the specific needs of our children. A child care plan,

[[Page E177]]

such as the one offered by the President, that punishes parent care and 
encourages government controlled institutionalized care does not 
strengthen the family. Rather, it weakens families while increasing the 
role of Washington bureaucrats in the lives of our children.

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