[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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