[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 40 (Thursday, March 8, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2917-S2918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. CLINTON:
  S. 820. A bill to establish demonstration projects to provide at-home 
infant care benefits; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and 
Pensions.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, last month marked the 14th anniversary 
of the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. This law 
has enabled workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to attend to 
an ailing family member or to care for a newborn baby. Since this 
landmark legislation was signed into law, more than 50 million working 
Americans have been able to take critical time off when necessary 
without putting their jobs on the line.
  The Family and Medical Leave Act was a critical first step in 
recognizing the challenges that Americans face in achieving a family-
work balance. For nearly a decade and a half, it has provided the most 
basic protections for workers who can afford to take unpaid leave. Yet, 
40 million workers cannot use the FMLA because they can't go without a 
paycheck. Throughout my career as a lawyer, mother, First Lady and 
Senator, I have sought solutions to the difficult challenges that 
working parents face.
  That is why I am pleased to reintroduce legislation, the Choice in 
Child Care Act of 2007, to meet the child care needs of working 
families. My bill provides a modest and important option for families 
who have none: the chance to stay home with their infants when there is 
no childcare available to them. This is the critical next step to 
ensure low-income families welcoming children in their lives are 
afforded more economic security than they would have otherwise.
  Bringing a new child into the world is one of the greatest joys a 
parent can experience, yet we also know that in the reality of today's 
economy, most parents must work to provide economic security for their 
newborns. In fact, 55 percent of women with infants younger than one 
year of age are in the workforce. As a result, working parents are 
faced with trying to provide economic security for their family while 
simultaneously ensuring that their infant receives the quality of care 
that he or she needs.
  Research shows that the quality of caretaking in the first months and 
years of life is critical to a newborn's brain development, social 
development and well-being. Yet there is currently a severe shortage of 
safe, affordable, quality care for infants. The number of licensed 
child care slots for infants meets only 18 percent of the need. The 
shortage is particularly acute in rural areas, and especially in rural 
areas that have many low-income residents.
  Ideally, I think we would all agree that parents who need affordable, 
high-quality care for their infant would provide that care themselves. 
However we know that, in many low- and moderate-income families, having 
a parent quit his or her job or reduce work hours to care for an infant 
is not financially viable. Doing so would plunge the family into an 
economic crisis. Rather, parents should have the choice and greater 
flexibility in providing safe, quality care for their infants.
  My legislation is modeled on creative programs States have 
established to provide low-income parents of infants a choice between 
returning to work and using a State child care subsidy to care for 
their infant and caring for their infant themselves with a monthly 
child care stipend. The Choices in Child Care Act would make these 
programs available to families across the country.
  My bill amends the Child Care Development Block Grant so that low- 
and moderate-income parents have the option of forgoing a State 
childcare subsidy for infant care outside the home and instead 
receiving a comparable stipend to provide the care themselves while 
keeping the family economically stable. The bill would help parents 
balance work and family, help meet the critical shortage of infant 
child care, provide cost savings to state child care programs, support 
quality care for the critical first years of a child's development, and 
value parenting as a form of work.
  This legislation supports families when they need it the most by 
providing options for low and moderate income families when they need 
to care for an infant. In order to truly value families we need to make 
sure families at all income levels have options to do what is best for 
them. The Choices in Child Care Act promotes family security by 
ensuring low-income families have the chance to care for their infants 
at home and receive some, albeit modest, financial assistance.
  As we move forward from the celebration of the 14th anniversary of 
the Family and Medical Leave Act let us

[[Page S2918]]

recognize the challenges Americans face in balancing work and family 
life today. The time has come, with the new 110th Congress, to give 
parents additional resources and options in helping them address these 
challenges. I urge my Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle to 
join me in supporting the Choices in Child Care Act of 2007.
                                 ______