[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 196 (Wednesday, November 29, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5662-S5668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Childcare

  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, as you well know, because we have 
talked about it, our childcare system is simply broken. It is not 
working for families across our country, and we face a crisis now that 
continues to grow worse.
  I have said that many times--many times--and I will say it again and 
again and again until we fix this broken system for good. And I am not 
the only one here in Congress who feels that way. Earlier this month, 
48 of my Senate colleagues sent a letter to me and Vice Chair Collins, 
Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell urging us to include childcare 
funding in any emergency supplemental.
  Today, many of them are joining me here on the Senate floor to lift 
up the

[[Page S5663]]

concerns that we are hearing from parents and making the case for 
providing robust childcare funding without delay.
  We cannot pretend that childcare is any less urgent than the other 
challenges that we face. For every parent, childcare is a do-it-now 
problem, not a do-it-later problem. We need to treat it the same way 
here: urgent and essential.
  Parents can't wait. They have to go to work tomorrow. They need 
accessible options now. Childcare workers cannot wait. They have to pay 
rent this month. They have to put food on their table tonight. They 
need a salary that lets them take care of their own families and that 
lets them keep doing what they love, instead of taking higher pay in 
retail or food services to keep their families afloat.
  Providers can't wait. Their margins are already razor thin. If they 
don't get the support they need to cover operating costs until after 
they have raised prices and cut off families, after workers have 
already left, or after they are forced to close their doors, well, it 
is too late.
  The writing on the wall is right now in big, bold letters. The 
childcare crisis is only going to get worse unless we take action and 
soon.
  Childcare providers across the country are hanging on by a thread, 
especially now that our stabilization funding has expired, cutting off 
the lifeline that helped 220,000 providers stay open and helped provide 
childcare to nearly 10 million kids, while raising wages for childcare 
workers and lowering prices for working families.
  If childcare centers don't get the support they need to make ends 
meet, the options for children and families is not pretty. We are 
talking about a very real possibility that childcare centers have to 
reduce the pay for their staff, lay off staff, serve fewer kids and 
families, raise their prices, or, in many cases, just simply shut their 
door.
  This is a huge problem for working parents who can scarcely find 
childcare as it is. And even if they can find openings, that doesn't 
mean they can afford them. In fact, the already high cost of childcare 
is only getting worse. The latest data shows that in September, 
childcare prices jumped by the largest percent in a year. That means 
parents--especially moms--are feeling the crunch, and far too many are 
going to be forced to leave their job or unable to return to the 
workforce because it just doesn't square with their family finances.
  Back in my home State, I have heard so many stories of families who 
are struggling with this. I just read a story about two parents, Lara 
and Rob. Rob had to leave his company to get a more flexible schedule 
because childcare was too expensive. So he and Lara have to trade off 
shifts and work fewer hours to make sure someone is watching the kids. 
And they are far from the only ones struggling with this.
  The KUOW article featuring their story this week also mentioned a 
woman named Monica--she is a therapist and former childcare worker who 
trades off working and watching the kids with her husband who is a 
police officer--and Skye, who is also trading off shifts with her 
husband since their childcare provider closed.
  As she put it, ``I definitely can't pay for soccer and my mortgage 
and some child care. I have to pick. So we've chosen soccer and 
mortgage and putting together this bizarre schedule where my husband is 
exhausted all the time and we barely see each other.''
  That is what parents are going through across Washington State and 
across our entire country. It is hurting everyone. You can draw a 
straight line from the expiration of the childcare stabilization funds 
at the end of September to the painful closure of childcare providers, 
to the subsequent scramble now by parents to find new and likely more 
expensive childcare for their kids, that is squeezing parents out of 
hours on the job, if not out of the workforce entirely, right to the 
employers who are left without the workers they need because you better 
believe it is going to have an impact on their bottom line.

  Failing to shore up our childcare industry that holds up nearly every 
sector of our economy in the midst of a workforce shortage that is 
hitting small businesses and big firms alike will cost us a lot more 
than the investment in childcare we are asking for. We are going to 
lose jobs; we are going to lose workers; and our economy is going to 
continue to lose billions more in lost wages and revenue and growth.
  We are talking a serious meltdown that costs our economy big if we 
fail to value our families and invest in the people parents need to 
watch over their kids.
  There is no reason for this, not if we take action and take it soon.
  As the Presiding Officer well knows, we cannot ignore childcare. This 
is hugely important for our national economy. It is one of the biggest 
line items on family budgets in many States, including my home State of 
Washington. Childcare now costs more than college tuition. We have to 
continue to stabilize the childcare system instead of standing by and 
letting things get worse and worse and worse.
  Families get this, all of my colleagues on the floor with me today 
get this, and thankfully President Biden does as well. The President 
sent Congress a request for supplemental funding for urgent domestic 
priorities, and childcare was at the top of that list.
  Now I am calling on all of our colleagues on both sides of this aisle 
to work with us to pass a package that funds critical needs at home, 
especially childcare.
  I think everyone understands there is a lot happening in the world 
today. That is why we absolutely need to pass supplemental funding to 
meet our urgent national security challenges and soon, but as we 
continue to work to do that, we also have to tackle the problems 
families face here at home, and that means addressing the growing 
childcare crisis.
  We are the United States of America. We can stand with our allies 
around the world and tackle the challenges we face with our families 
here at home. If we are serious about the strength of this Nation, our 
communities, and our families, we have got to respond to the domestic 
challenges with the same resolve as we do with the national security 
challenges.
  I am going to continue to work hard with everyone to do that, and I 
appreciate everybody's support and all of my colleagues who are here 
today to speak out on this.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. SMITH. Madam President, I rise with my colleagues today to say 
that childcare is a necessity for working families, and it is in all of 
our interests to make sure that families have a safe, affordable, high-
quality place for their little ones. And that is why we need to step up 
and make sure that we provide support for childcare as we contemplate 
next steps for an emergency supplemental budget.
  So for decades, Minnesotans have struggled to find childcare they can 
afford. Even before the pandemic, families told me that it cost them as 
much to pay for a year of daycare as to send their child to the 
University of Minnesota for a year.
  I mean, of course, these young families haven't had years to save to 
pay for that childcare. So they can't afford over $12,000 a year, and 
that is even if they can find a good, safe place for their infants and 
toddlers.
  Then, of course, when the pandemic hit, family care providers came 
into my office to tell me that their businesses were about to collapse. 
And then what happened? Congress took crucial action. We came together 
to pass emergency relief so that providers could pay their bills and 
keep their doors open, and families had a place for their children. 
These relief programs were absolutely necessary to help childcare 
providers keep their doors open and to operate during those 
unprecedented times.
  So here is the good news. Our efforts were a huge success. Minnesota 
providers, from the smallest of small businesses operating out of their 
homes to larger childcare centers, all tell me that they would not have 
survived without this help, and that is true not just in Minnesota but 
all over the country.
  Just in Minnesota, the emergency childcare stabilization grants kept 
over 8,000 childcare providers going. It kept them going. They reached 
over 200,000 kids just in Minnesota, but also in every State. From 
Alaska to Alabama, every State saw really tremendous benefits. In 
fact--this is interesting--96 percent of childcare providers that got

[[Page S5664]]

help from these stabilization grants say that it helped them to stay 
open and operating.
  So, colleagues, here is our challenge. On September 30, these 
programs expired, but the deep challenges that families and childcare 
providers face are still there. So we are back in the soup because, 
without help to these providers, they are back at risk themselves, and 
they face really terrible choices, as Senator Murray just described. Do 
they try to cut the pay for these workers, who are some of the lowest 
paid, underpaid workers--primarily women, primarily women of color--
anyplace in the country. So that is one option--pay cuts for those 
workers who are struggling already themselves. Or do they try to 
increase prices, which we know will drive some families away because 
they literally cannot afford what it costs? Or, as Senator Murray says, 
do they just fold up? Do they just go out of business? Do they give up?
  And if that happens, we know what we will see. We will see more women 
leaving the workforce at a time when many Minnesota businesses are 
telling me that they are struggling to find the talent that they need 
to grow their businesses.
  So, colleagues, we took decisive action to bolster our Nation's 
caregiving infrastructure, and we got great results. And, now, we 
cannot afford to lose the progress that we made.
  This is an issue that I think we all know people are paying attention 
to. In Minnesota and all over the country, they are noticing this. 
Childcare is one of the top issues that I hear about from people when I 
am home. I hear it from families in rural Minnesota who are driving 50 
miles to take their kids to childcare. I hear it from families who are 
paying more than a third of their incomes to cover the costs of care 
for two children, and I hear it from employers and economic development 
professionals who want to hire and retain great talent, but they know 
that they can't do that unless there is a childcare center in their 
community that people can rely on.
  So this is about our kids, but it is also about our economy. A recent 
study found that our broken childcare system cost the economy $122 
billion a year in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue. That is 
every year--$122 billion.
  So if you think about the return on investment for providing the 
grants to stabilize these childcare centers so that they are there for 
our families, it is so clear what the right thing to do is.
  We can fix this. We know what to do because we did it once and it 
worked, and now we just need to do it again.
  Now, I think that everyone in this room knows that we need a long-
term solution to our childcare crisis, and many of us are working on 
that. But, in the meantime, right now, families don't have time to 
wait. We know what to do. We know how to help parents. We know how to 
keep childcare providers open.
  And so I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle: Let's take 
what we know worked, and let's do it again. Join us in providing 
urgently needed support for childcare. Join us for the good of our 
families, for the good of our babies and toddlers, and for childcare 
providers and for our whole country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I am here to join my colleagues 
because, across the country, working families are facing an impossible 
choice that is created by the lack of access to childcare.
  Even before the COVID pandemic, families in my home State of New 
Hampshire and elsewhere have struggled to access affordable childcare, 
and they were often faced with shortages of available childcare slots. 
The pandemic exacerbated these challenges and caused childcare centers 
across the Granite State to close. That forced countless families to 
scramble for alternatives.
  The closure of a childcare provider can result in higher costs for 
families, and in New England, we already pay some of the highest costs 
for childcare in the country. They can also require parents to leave 
the workforce altogether.
  Since 2019, New Hampshire has lost nearly 1,500 childcare slots, as 
dozens of childcare centers have closed their doors. I have visited 
some of those centers from across my State--from Littleton, in the 
northern part of New Hampshire, to Rochester, down on the Maine border, 
to Manchester, our largest city, and over in the west to Keene. I have 
seen those closed classrooms and strained facilities in every corner of 
the Granite State.
  In October of 2020, New Hampshire had only half of the licensed 
capacity necessary to serve children under the age of 6 who needed 
care--only half of the required slots for care. And in just one of our 
counties, Coos County, which is the northernmost county of the State 
and borders Canada, three childcare centers have closed since January 
of this year.
  Like all of my colleagues on the floor, we worked to deliver more 
than $50 billion in Federal funding for childcare during the pandemic. 
This is funding that was critical for allowing providers to keep their 
doors open, to improve childcare affordability and expand access, to 
increase wages for childcare workers, and to build a supply of 
childcare in States like New Hampshire. Now, with that relief funding 
running out, childcare providers are again facing an existential 
crisis.

  Congress intentionally designed childcare relief during the pandemic 
to accomplish two goals: first, to provide direct relief to providers 
to stabilize the sector; and, second, to provide States with the 
resources to make long-term investments to try and address childcare 
availability.
  Now, I am disappointed to say that in my State of New Hampshire, they 
delayed the distribution of that long-term funding stream, which made 
the last 2 years unnecessarily burdensome for families and childcare 
providers across New Hampshire. In fact, I am hearing from providers 
who are in desperate need of additional support to avoid closing 
classrooms.
  So I am really pleased that the President included $16 billion for 
support for childcare in his domestic supplemental appropriations 
request to Congress, and we need to act as soon as possible to provide 
this critical funding.
  We have got to act to stabilize not just the childcare industry that 
our families and workforce and communities rely on, but this is vital 
for our economy as a whole. Right now, the repercussions of the 
childcare crisis are being felt across every sector of our economy. I 
have heard from every industry in New Hampshire--manufacturing, 
healthcare, nonprofits, tourism--that the childcare crisis has 
hamstrung their ability to continue to grow their operations.
  Over the summer, I traveled up to Coos County, that northernmost 
county of New Hampshire. I heard from parents and from one family, and 
a man named Michael, whose son's childcare center has recently closed. 
At the time of the closure, the nearest center with any open slots for 
him and his wife to be able to place their son was more than an hour 
away. That left Michael and his wife, like many families across the 
State, struggling to do their best to keep their jobs without local, 
reliable childcare. And where they live, their community can't afford 
for Michael or his wife, who is a critical healthcare worker, to leave 
the workforce.
  New Hampshire's families should not have to choose between their 
children and their jobs, and New Hampshire's businesses should not have 
to face additional struggles to find qualified workers.
  Families across America are relying on us--all of us here in 
Congress--to help childcare providers stay open and to provide 
affordable care options. This Federal funding would improve their lives 
while boosting our economy by helping parents keep their jobs or return 
to work.
  I appreciate all of those who are here on the floor today, and 
everyone who is supporting additional funding, for speaking out to make 
sure that we try and do something as soon as possible to help the 
families who are in need.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am delighted to join my colleagues 
today from the Finance Committee. Our chairman is here. We did, I 
think, remarkable work to expand the

[[Page S5665]]

child tax credit during the COVID epidemic, and it made a truly 
remarkable difference in children's lives--nearly 50 percent reduction 
in child poverty. Why would you not want more of that? Yet we let it 
expire in 2021, and, sure enough, child poverty climbed back up again.
  There was a lot of fearmongering, when we did it, that this was going 
to discourage people from working, that they would sit at home and sop 
up the tax credit. But the fact of the matter is, if you can't get 
childcare, you can't get to work. And if you can't get reliable, 
quality childcare, you can't move up into the kind of job where you 
don't have to worry about being called away because your childcare just 
fell apart.
  So in Rhode Island at least, we saw families do more work as a result 
of this, and 174,000 Rhode Island children benefited. Families got $264 
million--low-income families--to pay for childcare, get to work, or 
step up to a better job.
  At the same time, we also provided additional funding for childcare 
providers in that same American rescue plan, and that was another win. 
And you put the two together, and it really lifted families.
  Right now, without Congressional action, 3 million children are 
projected to lose access to childcare, and 70,000 childcare programs 
could close.
  Bring that to Rhode Island, and it is 21,000 kids in my State who 
could lose access to childcare, 680 childcare workers could lose their 
jobs, and 419 different childcare providers could close.
  We simply cannot let that happen. It is wrong. It is dumb. It is 
penny-wise and pound-foolish.
  We need to do three simple things: Make childcare a priority, 
encourage work and earning, and reduce child poverty. We can do those 
three things by reestablishing the child tax credit and continuing to 
support childcare providers.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I will start by thanking my colleagues, 
especially Senator Murray, for organizing this effort and also for her 
life of being a passionate advocate for kids, especially as an early 
childhood educator.
  And I will start in another way that is a little nontraditional and 
just be a proud dad. I have three adult children, and I am proud of 
them all for different reasons. But my middle son, I am proud of him 
because he is my only Phi Beta Kappa, and he also is an early childhood 
educator. He decided that working as a childcare provider is what he 
wants to do, and he has worked in both pre-K classroom settings and 
also individually for families.
  I know how little he makes, 10 years out of college. I know how he 
loves to find some extra hours where he can make a little bit more. I 
was excited that he was excited, a few years ago, when he told me that 
he had picked up extra hours shoveling snow at the pre-K classroom. 
Because he lives in Minnesota, there is a lot of snow to be shoveled. 
So on nights or on weekends when there is snow, he is going to make a 
little bit more by being the snow shoveler, so that kids, parents, and 
teachers can come safely to school that day.
  The stories that I hear traveling around Virginia are the same that 
my colleagues have shared, but I just want to share two, one from a 
parent and one from a provider.
  Heather is in Fairfax City, in the most populous part of Virginia. 
Here is what she told us:

       One of the reasons my family ended up homeless was because 
     we didn't have access to quality, affordable childcare for 
     our boys when they were little. They also lost access to 
     programs that would allow them to be school-ready.
       When I was pregnant with our twins, I was hospitalized for 
     almost 12 weeks, and we couldn't afford childcare for our 
     boys, so my husband would drop them off at the hospital so 
     that he would be able to go to work.
       Unfortunately, without access to child care and a hospital 
     being no place for kids to stay all day long, he ended up 
     losing his job, which in turn meant we lost money to provide 
     for ourselves. We had to go on SNAP to have food, and 
     eventually, he lost his business, and we became homeless. . . 
     . One of the biggest contributing factors was the lack of 
     access to affordable child care.
       At the time there was not enough space in programs like 
     Head Start. Without access to affordable, quality child care, 
     families are hurting. The lack of access to this vital 
     service has forced families to not be able to go to work, go 
     to school, or even leave kids at home in compromising 
     positions just to be able to put food on the table.
       I forgot to include that at this time, we were considered 
     middle class before all this; both my husband and I are 
     college educated. I was working at first, too, but also had 
     to leave my job because we couldn't afford the child care for 
     both of us to work. And my husband is an honorably discharged 
     combat veteran. I meant to add this to help demonstrate how 
     far-reaching this is and to break down myths about who this 
     affects.

  Quickly, at the other end of my State in Appalachia, Kristi, the 
owner of a childcare center in Blacksburg:

       Since the pandemic, we have had to decrease the number of 
     families that we were able to serve because we are having 
     such a difficult time with our staffing. Being able to pay 
     early childhood teachers has always been a significant 
     difficulty for us, but since the pandemic, it has [become] 
     tremendous. . . . I think what the Senate needs to understand 
     is that if this industry collapses, and I would say we are 
     very much on the verge of a major collapse, it is going to 
     have a detrimental impact on the workforce [and our economy].

  That is why we have to act to restore the childcare funding that 
created breathing room for our providers and our families, and I stand 
together with my colleagues to do all we can to support President 
Biden's request that we have $16 billion in childcare funding at this 
most critical time.
  With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, my colleagues have said it so well. Very 
briefly, I want to thank Senator Murray and all my colleagues who have 
done such good work.
  Let me start by saying that we Democrats are generally not supposed 
to use the words ``supply-side economics.'' I want everybody to 
understand we have to be supply-siders on childcare. We desperately 
need more childcare facilities. We need more built. And I have no 
qualms about saying as a proud Democrat and chairman of the Senate 
Finance Committee I am a supply-sider on the issue of childcare.
  I will say that everywhere I go in my State, big communities and 
small communities, there are waiting lines, very long waiting lines, 
for childcare. It is absolutely unacceptable.
  We have to increase our supply. We passed a number of good pieces of 
legislation. We have more to do.
  Point No. 2 is this is a fundamental issue of American productivity. 
We know that we are trying to compete in tough global markets. The 
President of the Senate, in my part of the world, California, Oregon, 
and the West, we have a geographical advantage, a leg up on China. 
Let's not give it away with the absence of good childcare facilities.
  You have to have childcare in order to be able to get to work and 
know that your kid is going to be OK while you are gone making a 
living.
  Finally, the third point that I would make is that we need to tap all 
the resources that are available in our communities--all of them. Child 
care centers, in-home child care, and we should also be thinking of how 
to partner with churches.
  This isn't a red or blue issue. It's not a rural or urban issue. It's 
an everyone issue. So our committees, working together, can do this. 
But we ought to utilize all our resources.
  I am going to make this a filibuster-free zone. My colleagues have 
all said it, you know, really well. Supply-side economics for getting 
us more childcare facilities. Let's focus on this as a productivity 
issue, a competitiveness issue. Third, let's utilize all the resources 
in our communities.
  I congratulate all my colleagues, and it is great to see the Finance 
Committee stalwarts out in force.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, I am so glad to join my colleagues on 
the floor today to really emphasize how a family's life falls apart 
when they don't have access to good childcare.
  I am one of a handful of parents of young kids. I have no complaints. 
Obviously, my wife and I make enough money so that we have been able to 
provide quality childcare for our kids, as we have both been working 
throughout their lives. But when you are living on a more modest 
salary--not a poverty wage but just a modest, lower middle income 
salary--your entire world can fall apart when you lose access to a 
quality childcare environment. People have to quit their jobs.

[[Page S5666]]

They have to move back in with their parents. They have to move their 
entire family to a different city or a different State. Your entire 
life gets upended when you can't find care for your child because you 
will upend your entire life for your child. Nothing matters more than 
making sure your child is safe.
  So what we are forcing our families to do simply because we don't 
choose to do the right thing and provide funding to make sure there is 
affordable, quality childcare available--it is sending our families 
into unnecessary crisis all over this country.
  In my State, I have had 124,000 parents report that their work has 
been disrupted by childcare issues, that they have had to leave work, 
that they have had to leave employment because of an interruption in 
childcare.
  Our childcare centers in Connecticut--and we are a high-cost 
childcare State. We are a high-cost State in general. Eighty-nine 
percent of them report that they have had difficulty hiring staff, 60 
percent of them say that right now they are understaffed, and 70 
percent of them say that they have wait lists for new families, which 
just shows you that all over Connecticut, we have a total mismatch 
between the number of slots and the number of families who need those 
slots.
  Of course, that delivers enormous harm to families but also to our 
workforce. I met a young woman a few weeks ago who lives in Hartford. 
She has a very young child. They are on a waitlist for a subsidized 
childcare slot. She wants to actually be a childcare worker. She wants 
to help solve the workforce shortage. But she can't get into the 
workforce. Why? Because she has to stay home to take care of her young 
child.
  So this cycle that ends up impacting not just families but our 
economy writ large is one that we have to break.
  I just want to leave you with this one last piece of math to just 
explain how serious this situation is in my State.
  In Connecticut, we have a program called Care for Kids, and this is a 
program that does for lower income families--tries to give them some 
subsidy so that they can afford childcare. But that program cuts off 
for a one-child family at $41,500 a year income. That is a lower middle 
income salary in Connecticut. That is a salary that is not unfamiliar 
in my State.
  Let me just do the very quick math for you. For a family of three, a 
two-bedroom, one-bedroom house could be about $1,800 a month. Childcare 
in Connecticut on average is going to be about $15,000 a year. Total up 
just the costs for a family who makes just above the threshold to 
qualify for our subsidy programs. Let's say a family makes $42,000, 
doesn't qualify for our subsidy programs, is spending $22,000 a year on 
rent, and is spending $15,000 a year on childcare. That is $37,000 a 
year. They make $42,000. They have $5,000 left. That is $10 a week for 
everything else--for food, for your cell phone, for clothes for your 
kid. If you are making above the rate of subsidy in Connecticut, just 
the cost of childcare and rent leaves you with $10 a week to survive. 
In the richest, most affluent country in the world, how can we justify 
leaving families who are doing the right thing, who are working, in 
that position?
  That is why I am so glad to be here on the floor with my colleagues 
pleading with our Republican friends to do the right thing and support 
the President's proposed plan to support affordable, quality childcare 
in this country, for the families I represent in Connecticut.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I am so pleased to be joining with my 
colleagues today to talk about something that is so fundamentally 
important for our families.
  So many times, I have heard from folks saying: We are paying more for 
childcare than our mortgage payment and trying to keep our house 
together.
  It is very frightening for many families trying to juggle those 
costs. So we have an urgent need for our families, for our economy, for 
our future.
  Every morning, millions of families in Michigan and across the 
country go through the very same ritual. Sleepy children are roused out 
of bed, clothes are chosen, breakfasts are eaten, faces are washed, 
teeth are brushed, snacks are packed, and then it is a scramble out the 
door. Car seats are buckled and off to the local childcare center. Only 
then can mom or dad's workday begin. For millions of families, this 
essential daily routine is at risk of falling apart.
  The American childcare system, already under severe strain before the 
pandemic, now is in danger of collapse. During the pandemic, I am so 
proud that we as Democrats cheered critical emergency funding that 
helped keep 10 million children in childcare. That funding expired, as 
colleagues have indicated, on September 30. Without it, more than 
700,000 childcare programs could close--700,000--and 3.2 million 
families could be left scrambling.
  As programs are forced to close their doors, quality care will be 
harder and harder to find, and what care is available will be harder 
and harder for families to afford.
  Some people may say: You know, I don't have kids in childcare. Why 
should I care?
  You will care when your doctor or dental appointment gets canceled 
because the nurse or the hygienist can't find anyone to watch their 
children that day. You will care when your favorite coffee shop shuts 
down because the owners can't find enough workers. You will care when 
your very best employee has to drop out of the workforce and stay home 
with her baby because she can't find quality, affordable childcare.
  The childcare industry is like the scaffolding that our entire 
economy rests on. When that scaffolding collapses, down goes the 
economy. President Biden understands that, and he has requested the 
critical funding needed to keep this crucial scaffolding standing. It 
is time that we come together on a bipartisan basis and act. American 
families, American parents, and children just can't wait.
  Just as importantly, we have another challenge we need to be meeting 
right now that relates to families, to moms and kids. We need to ensure 
that American moms and American babies aren't going hungry on our 
watch.
  We have this wonderful program that has been supported on a 
bipartisan basis since the beginning called the WIC--Women, Infants, 
and Children--Program. It is a program that provides critical food 
assistance, medical screenings, breastfeeding support, baby formula, 
and nutrition education to pregnant moms, new moms, and children under 
age 5.
  Right now, we also have a funding cliff happening and a critical need 
for funding. Since 1997, WIC has been fully funded to cover all 
eligible moms and babies and prevent waiting lists. Now, we can all 
come together. We should all be coming together to want healthy 
babies--pregnant moms being healthy, delivering healthy babies, and 
having the nutrition available for moms and babies during the early 
years of a child's life. That is what WIC does, and it has been fully 
funded since 1997.
  Congress has always understood there can't be a waiting list for 
pregnant moms. How do you have a waiting list when the whole pregnancy 
lasts 9 months? It makes no sense. To get the nutrition that moms need 
and that babies need, we have to make sure there are not waiting lists, 
and newborns just keep growing whether they have the food they need or 
not.
  But now there is a $1 billion shortfall in the funding of the 
program. Without funding, full funding, moms and babies are at risk of 
being put on waiting lists for the first time ever in the history of 
the program in the United States or of seeing critical nutritional 
support cut. This would take away essential nutrition assistance during 
a critical time in a baby's life. Soon, States are going to start 
making decisions about their budgets, and we need to provide assurance 
to States that they can continue to serve everyone and keep their 
promise--our promise--to moms and babies.
  As anyone who has done it knows, raising a family is a tough, tough 
job. The last thing parents should worry about when they are trying to 
wash those faces and find those coats and get the kids out the door is 
whether or not their childcare center is going to be open and available 
or whether they will lose the baby formula that their baby needs.
  American families are raising the next generation. We always say 
children are our future. The fact is, they

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don't wait to grow up. Whether we act or not, they just keep growing. 
We need to have a sense of urgency about this. We all care about our 
children. We need to act to make sure quality, affordable childcare is 
there and the nutrition support for our moms and babies is there as 
well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I rise today in strong support of 
Senator Murray's Child Care Stabilization Act.
  We know how much of a lifeline this program has been for families, 
for childcare providers, and our economy since it was established in 
2021. Thanks to this program, 220,000 childcare providers stayed 
afloat. Up to 10 million kids' childcare slots were saved, and the 
unemployment rate for moms with kids under age 6 empowered moms to 
return to work at rates we have not seen.
  The need for high-quality childcare is one of those issues I hear 
about all over Minnesota, from the Iron Range up north to our farming 
towns in Southern Minnesota, from urban areas in the Twin Cities to 
suburbs across the metro. It doesn't matter how qualified you are or 
how badly you may want a job, if there is no one to watch your kids, 
you can't go to work. Too often, people are in this situation because 
there are simply no childcare options.
  I think about Pam and her husband, who live in Cottage Grove, MN. 
They both work full time and rely on daycare centers to look after 
their two little kids. They are paying more than $2,800 a month for 
childcare, meaning Pam's husband's whole paycheck goes toward paying 
those costs.
  Pam told me:

       We may soon join the increasing ranks of parents forced to 
     leave the workforce because they have no other option.

  Another Minnesotan, Erin, is a new mom, who a year after having her 
baby still can't find an open childcare spot. She sent email after 
email to local providers, but all she got in response was an 
overwhelming number of ``no infant openings.'' Many of these providers 
told Erin that they wouldn't have openings for years. When she finally 
found an opening, she could hardly afford it.
  Then there is Amelia, who lives in Richfield--a southern suburb in 
the Twin Cities--and pays over $15,000 a year for each of her two kids. 
Her family is facing the same dilemma as so many others:

       We can't pay our mortgage if I stay home, but we barely 
     take anything home after paying to send our twins to 
     preschool.

  Pam, Erin, and Amelia, who live in different parts of our State--and 
they have way different jobs--and the 51 percent of Americans who also 
live in childcare deserts deserve better. They deserve high-quality 
childcare that is in their budgets and that actually has open spots for 
kids.
  The good news? We have been making progress in my State. Here are a 
few examples.
  In Redwood Falls, a brandnew childcare center will provide the area 
with more than 70 new childcare slots with a combination of funding, 
private and public.
  The town of Morris--a college town near South Dakota--started a 
program that I visited. They have six childcare pods. They are 
apartments that could be converted to senior housing if they want, but 
it allows small providers--who maybe have six to eight kids--to have a 
place that is safe for the kids. They share a parking lot and the like. 
That facility in a smaller town serves more than 80 kids.

  Just a few weeks ago, I was in new facilities in Perham, MN, at the 
Children's Corner. Those were two companies--one is food manufacturing, 
with about 700 employees, the other a healthcare company. They combined 
and paid for the expansion of the existing private childcare nonprofit 
facility, doubled the number of childcare slots, and got some promised 
to their kids out of those companies but a whole lot more for everyone 
else.
  Fiscal year 2023 congressionally directed spending also made it 
possible for the Hallie Q. Brown-Martin Luther King Service Center in 
St. Paul to build additional daycare facilities.
  We are making huge steps in the right direction, including coming out 
of our State legislature in the last year, but Congress needs to pick 
up this momentum to do right by people like Pam and Erin and Amelia and 
pass the Child Care Stabilization Act.
  For far too many parents, the lack of available, affordable childcare 
is a barrier to finding a job. I thank Senator Murray for this 
incredibly important legislation. While we work to strengthen our 
childcare workforce--it has got to be a piece of this in a big way--and 
build facilities where families need them the most, we need to ensure 
that our childcare centers have the funding they need to provide 
affordable, high-quality care.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nevada.
  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Madam President, I rise today, along with my 
colleagues, because, as the President pro tempore has heard, we have a 
childcare crisis in this country. Families can't afford it; employers 
don't have the funds to subsidize it; and providers can't pay their 
workers. In my home State of Nevada, it can cost more to send your kids 
to childcare than it does to send them to college. It is just 
outrageous, and we have to do something about it.
  One of the many consequences of this crisis is that some parents who 
can't afford childcare have to stay home with their kids instead of 
reentering the workforce. I hear this all the time in Nevada. Nearly 39 
percent of women with children younger than 5 years old have quit their 
jobs in the last 3 years. Over 90 percent of those women willingly 
decided to leave their jobs and stop earning an income, not because 
they were laid off or had their hours cut back but because they needed 
to stay home with their children because they lacked the resources for 
childcare in this country to afford it. It is hurting our families. It 
is hurting our children and our economy, quite frankly. We must expand 
access to childcare now.
  We took steps to lower childcare costs for families when we passed 
the American Rescue Plan. That funding has made a difference for 
families across the country. In Nevada, that means families of four 
that make up to $70,000 a year are getting help covering their 
childcare costs. It means all copays for childcare programs have been 
waived. It means that thousands of families across my State have been 
able to breathe easier knowing that they won't have to choose between 
groceries and their kids' tuitions.
  A perfect example is Christine McNally, who lives in Northern Nevada, 
in Reno. She works with these families every day at her two childcare 
centers in Northern Nevada. She told me about a single mom she works 
with who has three kids. Now, before the American Rescue Plan passed 
that lowered childcare costs, this mother was paying $120 per week in 
copays. That is $120 per week. Not having to cover the cost of these 
copays anymore has been huge for her and her family. It has helped 
alleviate so much financial pressure. Now she can pay her electric 
bills without having to worry about covering other costs, including 
childcare.
  The problem is, as we have heard from our colleagues, this 
legislation expired this year, and, unfortunately, we don't have all of 
our colleagues who want to continue to support this. What I am hearing 
from some really far-right Republicans is a refusal to work with us to 
extend this program, and that is going to be devastating for so many 
families across the country, including in Nevada, including Christine's 
families whom she works with.
  Thousands of them are going to see skyrocketing costs next year. 
Parents who have no one else to look after their children will face 
impossible choices, and many will choose to leave the workforce so that 
they can care for their kids themselves. Providers won't be able to 
continue to pay their staffs, forcing many to look for employment 
elsewhere, and childcare programs across the country will shut down. 
Families will have to stay on longer waiting lists for even more time 
to access the remaining programs. We just cannot let that happen.
  Childcare is critical for our families. This isn't a partisan issue; 
this is about helping working families across the country. This is what 
they want. This is what I hear in my State. This is what I hear across 
the country. We

[[Page S5668]]

have to pass the Child Care Stabilization Act now to protect it and to 
protect our families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, across the country, parents and 
caregivers are bending over backward to try to get their children in 
early education. They are paying tens of thousands of dollars out of 
pocket, relying on family, friends, and neighbors, or are simply giving 
up work or their own educations because they can't find a childcare 
program with an opening. At the same time, overworked and underpaid 
providers are struggling to prop up childcare programs, burning 
themselves out, and leaving empty, shuttered classrooms behind them.
  The system is broken, and if we leave it broken, we are failing 
multiple generations of people who are relying upon us to fix it--to 
fix the broken system.
  As Marian Wright Edelman said, investing in children is not a 
national luxury or a national choice; it is a national necessity--a 
national necessity for our future.
  If we want the 21st century to be better than the 20th century, we 
don't have a choice--it is a necessity.
  When the pandemic began, Congress stepped up and provided the largest 
ever onetime investment in the childcare sector through the American 
Rescue Plan, and it worked. In Massachusetts, childcare providers 
received higher pay; programs stayed safe and open in more places and 
for more hours through the day. We kept classrooms open and prevented 
families from trying to decide how to continue working and finding a 
safe place for their children to learn, to grow, and to thrive.
  But the pandemic-era money is drying up, and those cracks that 
ruptured in 2020 were from years of underinvestment long before we had 
ever heard of COVID-19. If we fail to maintain this investment--if we 
fail 3.2 million children who would lose their care and the 232,000 
childcare workers who would lose their jobs--then it would be a tragedy 
for our country. It would ultimately be an economic catastrophe for our 
country that we did not invest in those children in the same way that 
we were invested in by preceding generations.
  One of the reasons that they called an earlier generation the 
``greatest generation,'' they weren't as wealthy as us, but they were 
wiser than us. They knew that every child had to be invested in. And 
that is why we are the country that we are today.
  The challenge for this generation is, are we as wise as preceding 
generations? Do we understand that it is only out of selfishness that 
we would not make the same decision that those earlier generations made 
in children to whom they were not related either, who did not come from 
the same ethnic group as they did either, but they did it because it 
would help our country?
  I am so proud that Massachusetts is a leader in childcare. State-
level investments have saved almost 1,000 programs and 18,000 seats 
across the State from closure. But we can't expect States to keep 
plugging the holes of a failing system. We can't keep letting early 
educators and childcare providers bear the weight of underinvestment. 
We can't let generations of families fall behind because of a broken 
system. And we cannot let our childcare system--and all of the 
children, all of the families, all of the workers and providers in it--
fall off a cliff because there isn't enough funding for the children in 
our country to get the care that they need.
  We need to give States the financial freedom to invest, to improve 
quality, to reduce costs, and to expand access. We need to guarantee 
children and families have high-quality childcare. We need a national, 
permanent solution to the childcare crisis.
  If we want kids to thrive when they start school, if we want families 
to move out of poverty, we need to fund stabilization, support children 
and families, and build a childcare system that works.
  So I thank Senator Murray for her great historic leadership on this 
issue, for fighting for all of those children in our country to make 
sure they get the help that they deserve, because they are the ones who 
are going to make America better in the 21st century.
  Young people are only 20 percent of our population, but they are 100 
percent of our future. That is all Senator Murray is talking about. Let 
us invest in them in the same way that we were invested in by previous 
generations.