[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 78 (Thursday, June 7, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5982-S5983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JEFFORDS (for himself and Mr. Dodd):
  S. 1004. A bill to provide for the construction and renovation of 
child care facilities; and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, there is a great need to improve child 
care in this country. America lags far behind all other industrialized 
nations in caring for and educating our pre-school aged children. We 
have the opportunity to make improvements, and we need to act now. I 
rise today, to introduce two small, but vitally important child care 
bills: the Child Care Construction and Renovation Act and the Federal 
Employees Child Care Act.
  The Child Care Construction and Renovation Act is as much a small 
business assistance bill as it is a child care bill. Child care 
providers are small business owners. Almost every child care provider 
that I have talked with over the past few years wants the opportunity 
to expand their services, increase their skills, and improve their 
facilities. But the child care business is a financially unstable 
endeavor. Child care centers and home-based providers are finding it 
increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff, to buy the supplies 
and equipment that will promote healthy child development, and even to 
keep their doors open.
  The Shelburne Children's Center in Vermont closed a couple of years 
ago because it could not afford to stay open. Nearly forty percent of 
all family-based child care and ten percent of the center-based care 
close each year. Parents can only pay what they can afford, and far too 
often that is barely enough to keep a child care provider in business.
  This legislation also creates financing mechanisms to support the 
renovation and construction of child care facilities. First, it amends 
the National Housing Act to provide mortgage insurance on new and 
rehabilitated child care facilities. It creates a revolving fund to 
help with the purchase or refinancing of existing child care 
facilities. Second, it provides funds for local, non-profit community 
development organizations to provide technical assistance and small 
grants to child care providers to help them improve and expand their 
center- or home-based child care facilities.
  Without some government help, child care providers cannot expand 
their services to provide care for many families seeking affordable, 
quality care for their children. They cannot upgrade their equipment or 
make improvements to better ensure the safety of children in their 
care. Just as the government provides funds and services to encourage 
the building and renovation of low-income housing, child care, with its 
low-profit potential needs a similar helping hand.
  The second bill which I am introducing today is the Federal Employees 
Child Care Act. The Federal Government is the largest American provider 
or employer-sponsored, on-site child care. Congress has acted 
affirmatively with an extensive commitment to on-site child care for 
its employees. The General Services Administration, (GSA), has 
developed considerable expertise in helping agencies start and maintain 
quality child care services for the children of Federal employees.
  However, there are some problems which we, as an employer, need to 
address. As you know, federal property is exempt from state and local 
laws, regulations, and oversight. What this means for child care 
centers located on that property is that state and local health and 
safety standards do not and cannot apply. This might not be a problem 
if federally-owned or leased child care centers met enforceable health 
and safety standards. I think most parents who place their children in 
federal child care would assume that this would be the case. However, I 
think Federal employees will find it very surprising to learn, as I 
did, that, at many centers, no such health and safety apply.
  I find this very troubling, and I think we sell our Federal employees 
a bill of

[[Page S5983]]

goods when federally-owed leased child care cannot guarantee that their 
children are in safe facilities. The Federal Government should set the 
example when it comes to providing safe child care. It should not turn 
an apathetic shoulder from meeting such standards simply because state 
and local regulations do not apply to them.
  In 1987, Congress passed the ``Trible amendment'' which permitted 
executive, legislative, and judicial branch agencies to utilize a 
portion of federally-owned or leased space for the provision of child 
care services for federal employees. The General Services 
Administration, (GSA), was given the authority to provide guidance, 
assistance, and oversight to Federal agencies for the development of 
child care centers. In the decade since the Trible amendment was 
passed, hundreds of Federal facilities throughout the nation have 
established on-site child care centers which are a tremendous help to 
our employees.
  The General Services Administration has done an excellent job of 
helping agencies develop child care centers and have adopted strong 
standards for those centers located in GSA leased or owned space. 
However, there are over 100 child care centers located in Federal 
facilities that are not subject to the GSA standards or any other laws, 
rules, or regulations to ensure that the facilities are safe places for 
our children. Most parents, placing their children in a federal child 
care center, assume that some standards are in place, assume that the 
centers must minimally meet state and local child care licensing rules 
and regulations. They assume that the centers are subject to 
independent oversight and monitoring to continually ensure the safety 
of the premises.

  Yet, that is not the case. In a case where a Federal employee had 
strong reason to suspect the sexual abuse of her child by an employee 
of a child care center located in a Federal facility, local child 
protective services and law enforcement personnel were denied access to 
the premises and were prohibited from investigating the incident. 
Another employee's child was repeatedly injured because the child care 
providers under contract with a Federal agency to provide on-site child 
care services failed to ensure that age-appropriate health and safety 
measures were taken, current law says they were not required to do so, 
even after the problems were identified and injuries had occurred.
  It is time to get our own house in order. We must safeguard and 
protect the children receiving services in child care centers housed in 
Federal facilities. Our employees should not be denied some assurance 
that the centers in which they place their children are accountable for 
meeting basic health and safety standards.
  The Federal Employees Child Care Act will require all child care 
services located in Federal facilities to meet, at the very least, the 
same level of health and safety standards required of other child care 
centers in the same geographical area. That sounds like common sense, 
but as we all know too well, common sense is not always reflected in 
the law. This bill will make that clear.
  Further, this legislation demands that Federal child care centers 
begin working to meet these standards now. Not next year, not in two 
years, but now. Under this bill, after six months we will look at the 
Federal child care centers again, and if a center is not meeting 
minimal state and local health and safety regulations at that time, 
that child care facility will be closed until it does. I can think of 
no stronger incentive to get centers to comply.
  The legislation makes it clear that State and local standards should 
be a floor for basic health and safety, and not a ceiling. The role of 
the Federal Government, and, I like to think, of the United States 
Congress in particular--is to constantly strive to do better and to 
lead by example. Federal facilities should always try to meet the 
highest possible standards. In fact, the GSA has required national 
accreditation in GSA-owned and leased facilities, and has stated that 
almost all of its centers are either in compliance or are strenuously 
working to get there. This is the kind of tough standard we should 
strive for in all of our Federal child care facilities.
  Federal child care should mean something more than simply location on 
a Federal facility. The Federal Government has an obligation to provide 
safe care for its employees, and it has a responsibility for making 
sure that those standards are monitored and enforced. Some Federal 
employees receive this guarantee. Many do not. We can do better.
  I urge swift passage of these important child care bills and hope 
that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in this 
effort.
                                 ______