[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 62 (Thursday, May 18, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4184-S4185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE MILLION MOM MARCH

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on Mother's Day 2000, half a million 
mothers and others marched on Washington to demonstrate their fury at 
the number of children killed by gun violence last year. Their goal: to 
convince Congress to pass even more laws restricting citizen access to 
handguns. All in all, it was quite a spectacle. But while it reflects 
the modern American view that every ill can be remedied through the 
power of law, it seems to me the real--and only--question to be 
answered is will more laws actually produce the result we all seek?
  Before we can answer that question, Mr. President, we must examine 
this one: is the recent spate of gun violence involving children the 
result of rising levels of crime and escalating gun ownership, or 
something else?
  Let's look at the facts:
  During the 1060s, 1970s, and 1980s, gun violence increased 
dramatically. During the 1990s, however, the numbers actually began to 
decline, with school violence of the type exhibited at Columbine 
falling precipitously to the point where kids today are probably the 
safest they've been in decades.
  In 1996 (the last year for which statistics are available), 1,134 
Americans died in accidental shootings--the lowest level ever recorded. 
Only 42 were under the age of 10. Yet more than 2,400 10-year-olds died 
that year in motor vehicle accidents, another 800 were drowned, and 
well over 700 died from fire. As for the danger of guns in homes, only 
about 30 people each year are accidently killed by homeowners who 
believe they are shooting an intruder, as opposed to 330 who are 
accidentally killed by police.
  So why are the numbers declining? While there could be lots of 
reasons--tougher judges, stiffer penalties, and little mercy for repeat 
offenders--it's also interesting to note that the decline in murder and 
violent crime has paralleled an increase in gun ownership.
  Mr. President, today about 80 millions Americans, or 40 percent of 
the population, own almost 250 million firearms, as compared with about 
27 percent in 1988. And in states like Texas where citizens are allowed 
to carry concealed weapons, the number of murders, assaults, and 
burglaries has dropped dramatically. Significantly, in 15 states with 
tough gun control measures including the trigger locks and ``safe 
storage'' laws moms on the Mall were rallying for, there were--
accordingly to Mr. Lott--3,600 more rapes, 22,500 more robberies, and 
64,000 more burglaries. Could it be that criminals are smart enough to 
know where they're likely to encounter resistance and where it's 
easiest to operate?
  Mr. President, there is nothing more tragic than losing a child. And 
nothing more wonderful than mothers fighting to keep their children 
safe from harm. But before any war can be won, we must understand the 
enemy and develop a strategy to defeat him. In the war against gun 
violence, the enemy is not the weapon, but the criminal who uses it. 
Making it easier for him to win by restricting those who could thwart 
his evil act, or deter it in the first place, is not the answer.
  Marching on the Mall is stirring spectacle, but ending the tragedy of 
gun violence requires a much more serious solution.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to bring to the Senate's 
attention an excellent report on the state of child care in the U.S. 
military and the implications for improving civilian child care. ``Be 
All That We Can Be: Lessons from the Military for Improving Our 
Nation's Child Care System'' documents the Department of Defense's 
impressive turn-around of its troubled child care system and its 
emergence as a model of affordable and quality child care for the 
civilian world. As recently as ten years ago, military child care was 
in crisis--changing demographics in the military workforce had led to a 
surge in demand for child care that the Department was unprepared to 
meet. Child care waiting lists soared and quality plummeted. Prodded by 
a GAO report, Congressional hearings, and the recognition that child 
care is a fundamental issue for military readiness, the Department of 
Defense turned its child care system the gold standard for the Nation.
  The experience of the Department of Defense offers important lessons 
for the civilian world and offers great hope

[[Page S4185]]

for improving child care across the Nation. Parents should not have to 
join the service to receive good child care. High quality, affordable 
care is a basic necessity for all working families. It is my hope that 
we will take these lessons to heart and commit to ensuring that all 
children are given opportunities for the right start in life.
  I would like to express my gratitude to Nancy Duff Campbell and 
Judith Appelbaum of the National Women's Law Center for their hard work 
on producing this valuable report and I would ask that a summary of the 
important ``lessons learned'' from their report be entered into the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                          Six Lessons Learned

       First, those seeking to make improvements in civilian child 
     care should not be daunted by the task: the military has 
     shown by its example that it is possible to take a woefully 
     inadequate child care system and dramatically improve it over 
     a relatively short period of time. If even a tradition-bound 
     institution like the military can turn its child care system 
     around, similar progress should be achievable in other 
     settings.
       Second, to achieve progress, it is necessary to acknowledge 
     the seriousness of the child care problem and the 
     consequences of inaction. Policy makers in Congress and the 
     Department of Defense acted to reform military child care 
     after extensive Congressional hearings and GAO reports not 
     only exposed the poor state of military child care, but also 
     documented two results: because the child care system was 
     failing to meet the needs of a changing workforce it was 
     jeopardizing workforce performance (and thus military 
     readiness), and it was affecting the welfare of the children. 
     Similar concerns about the unavailability of high-quality, 
     affordable child care across the U.S. today--its impact on 
     workforce performance, and the effects on the healthy 
     development and learning of children--should prompt action to 
     improve civilian child care.
       Third, the quality of child care can be improved by 
     focusing on establishing and enforcing comprehensive 
     standards, assisting providers in becoming accredited, and 
     enhancing provider compensation and training. The military 
     has developed comprehensive standards that providers must 
     meet in order to be certified to operate, and it ensures 
     that these standards are met through a system of 
     unannounced inspections and serious sanctions for failure 
     to comply. It also assists providers in meeting the 
     additional requirements necessary to become accredited by 
     a nationally recognized program. It encourages parental 
     involvement through parent boards, an ``open door'' 
     policy, and an anonymous hotline for reporting problems. 
     And it has increased provider compensation and training, 
     and linked compensation increases to the achievement of 
     training milestones. While some states have taken steps 
     forward in one or more of these areas, on the whole the 
     states have been far less effective in addressing these 
     issues, and could benefit substantially from emulating the 
     military's formula for success.
       Fourth, child care affordability should be addressed 
     through a system of subsidies. The military child care system 
     keeps care affordable for parents through the use of a 
     sliding schedule of fees based on parent income, as well as 
     other subsidies. As a result, the average weekly fee paid by 
     military families for center-based care is significantly 
     lower than the average weekly fee paid by civilian families 
     for such care. In the civilian world, a patchwork array of 
     government measures assists some families in meeting their 
     child care expenses, but these policies are inadequate. 
     Policy makers at both the federal and state levels should 
     follow the military's example in making more resources 
     available-as well as using the mechanisms it has used to 
     distribute these resources--to help subsidize care for 
     families who cannot afford to pay the full cost of good child 
     care.
       Fifth, the availability of care should be expanded. 
     Although demand still far exceeds supply in the military 
     system, the military has made significant progress in this 
     regard by continually assessing unmet need and taking steps 
     to address it through a comprehensive approach that includes 
     all kinds of care: child care centers, family child care, and 
     before and after-school programs, as well as resource and 
     referral agencies to assist parents in locating care. Some 
     states and localities have taken a variety of steps to expand 
     the supply of child care, but the military's experience 
     demonstrates, among other things, that it is essential to 
     measure unmet demand and then develop a plan for meeting it 
     with specific goals and timetables.
       Sixth, improving the quality, affordability, and 
     availability of child care is a costly proposition, and will 
     succeed only if policy makers commit the resources necessary 
     to get the job done. Through increased Congressional 
     appropriations and allocations from within DoD resources, the 
     funds provided for military child care have been climbing 
     dramatically in recent years, making the turnaround in 
     military child care possible. The same commitment of 
     resources on the civilian side is not yet evident. An 
     increased public investment is critical if the same progress 
     is to be achieved in civilian child care. The military's 
     experience shows, in short, that policy makers can be prodded 
     into action by the acknowledgment of a serious child care 
     problem, and that once they make child care a top priority 
     and allocate the resources that are needed to address it, a 
     seriously deficient system can be turned around. Those faced 
     with the challenge of expanding access to affordable, high-
     quality child care across the United States today--policy 
     makers, child care administrators, advocates, providers, 
     parents, and others--should find encouragement in this 
     conclusion. Inspired by the military's example, and armed 
     with knowledge of the tools it used to achieve its successes, 
     they need only to apply the lessons learned to make child 
     care for all working families, like the child care provided 
     to military families--to echo the Army's familiar jingle--
     ``be all that it can be.''

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