[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14978-14981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       FIGHTING FOR OUR CHILDREN

  Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise tonight to speak about a topic we 
speak to on a regular basis, but, frankly, we don't speak about it 
enough in terms of the priority we should place upon it. That, of 
course, is the issue and the priority we place upon the children of 
America. We talk, as we often do in Washington, about how important our 
children are, but we don't speak about or act in a concerted effort to 
address some of the most urgent needs of our children, especially in a 
time of recession.
  Fortunately, we are recovering. We have a very high unemployment 
rate. We have 15 million Americans out of work. In my home State of 
Pennsylvania, there are more than 591,000 people out of work. But we 
are recovering. Within a recession, in a time of horrific nightmare, 
really, for a lot of families, the ones who pay the price in a very 
severe and substantial way are the children of America. We speak 
tonight about how they are getting through this recession, how we get 
them through the shadows of this recession so that we can do everything 
we can to make sure they are healthy, safe, and ready to learn.
  I believe--and I think this is true of most Americans--that every 
child born in America is born with a light inside them. For some 
children, because of their circumstances--their family background or 
other advantages they have--that light inside them is boundless, 
blinding. You can't even see the reach of it. They have all of the 
gifts and all of the ability anyone would want, all of the advantages 
anyone would want. For other children, that light is more limited, more 
circumscribed. It is limited through no fault of their own, through no 
fault of that child. When that is the case, as is the case for many 
American children, it is the duty of every public official--every 
Federal official, every State official, every county and local 
official--to use every opportunity they have--and some have more 
opportunity and more power to impact our children than others, but 
whatever opportunity you have as a public official, you have an 
obligation to do everything you can to help children along the way. 
Whether you are in office for 1 year or 1 month or 10 years or 20 years 
or longer, every public official has an abiding obligation--I think it 
is actually a sacred duty--to do everything possible to ensure that the 
light inside every child burns as brightly as the reach of its 
potential.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  I think there are at least four areas where every child in America 
should have the opportunity to have the full measure of our attention 
and our action. Certainly, health care--I will talk a little bit about 
health care tonight--and, obviously, nutrition, and preventing hunger 
is a huge priority; third, early learning, which I will speak of 
tonight as well; fourth, just basic safety.
  If every child has at least those four, no matter what their 
circumstances, they will have a much better chance of succeeding and 
contributing to our economy than they would without our help. We can't 
do everything, but America can do a lot more than it is doing now as it 
relates to our children. As it confronts us as a challenge--what 
happens to our children--there are at least two sets of updates. One is 
the bad news--the numbers we see right now in the midst of a recession. 
The other side of the ledger is some good news, in terms of actions 
that have been taken and strategies that are in place to help our kids.
  First of all, the bad news. Child poverty is on the rise, in large 
measure because of the recession. We know that a new study about the 
foundation of child development, released in June of this year, found 
that the poverty rate among children is 21 percent, up from 17 percent 
from before the recession in 2006. In just 3 years, going from a 17-
percent child poverty rate to 21 percent--a stunning and disturbing 
increase in child poverty. This means 15.6 million children will be 
living in poverty in 2010. I come from a State where the population is 
roughly 12.4 million. That means this child poverty rate in America is 
bigger than the population of Pennsylvania, bigger than the population 
of New Jersey or Massachusetts. You could go on and on and add a State 
to that list. Very few States have double figure millions in terms of 
population. Yet we have a double figure million number for child 
poverty--15.6 million children.
  That rate places the United States among the highest of its peer 
nations--the highest in the United States in 20 years. For those who 
say we don't need to keep going to get this recovery in full bloom and 
to have our economy fully recover, I would cite the child poverty rate 
as one example or one piece of evidence that tells us we have to keep 
going and recovering, and we have to keep pushing the economy out of 
the ditch so our poverty rate among children can come down. Half these 
children will be living in ``extreme poverty,'' defined as below 50 
percent of the poverty line.
  The recession is not some remote set of numbers on child poverty or 
unemployment or any of the other numbers we use to measure or describe 
the recession. There are some better ways to talk about it. Dr. Mariana 
Chilton, a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA--someone 
who I know to be a leader on child hunger issues and a real advocate 
and expert and passionate advocate for children--has said, among many 
things she has written and has said about our kids:

       As to the children, the recession is in their bodies and in 
     their brains.

  Meaning, of course, that a bad economy has an impact on poor children 
that is physical in nature. It is not just some condition that is 
remote; it physically injures a poor child more than a child who is not 
poor. That is what the recession means to a child. Unfortunately, that 
is not the end of it. Even while the recession is injuring children 
physically, it is also limiting their potential, their brain 
development, which, of course, stays with them for the rest of their 
lives. So it is indeed a recession that injures them physically, their 
bodies, but also has an adverse impact on their brains, which stays 
with them forever.
  Recent studies indicate child poverty can have these lingering 
effects. The Urban Institute found that 49 percent of children born 
into poverty go on to spend at least half their childhood in poverty. 
Children raised in poverty have worse outcomes than their counterparts 
in higher income families. Some of this is self-evident, I know. Some 
of it seems like the same analysis we have been hearing for years. But 
just imagine that. If you are born into poverty, chances are very high 
that you will spend at least half your childhood in poverty. The 
effects of that, the lingering, substantial effects of that will stay 
with you for the rest of your life.
  The recession, for a lot of people, isn't just a set of numbers, it 
is a set of misery indicators, and a set of disturbing outcomes that 
will adversely impact our children for years and decades, 
unfortunately. That is some of the bad news as it relates to our 
children--poverty, lingering effect of the recession and a harmful and 
disturbing impact of the recession on our kids.
  Is there any good news? Well, there is some. It doesn't balance 
completely the set of bad news as a set of adverse indicators. But one 
piece of legislative good news, as it relates to our kids, is the 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was passed what seems 
like a long time ago, in the early part of 2009. Throughout the 
recession, the Recovery Act has had a positive impact in a number of 
ways. Let me, just by way of background, walk through a couple data 
points.
  According to a June of 2010 report by First Focus, one of our great 
advocacy groups in America for our children, we spend less than a dime 
out of $1 on children in any given Federal budget year. That is our 
Federal budget year

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after year. When you overlay what we spend on our kids, it is less than 
a dime out of $1. That is not something any of us should be proud about 
or satisfied with. We have to do a lot better than a dime out of $1 for 
our kids--or a lot better than less than a dime out of $1 for our kids. 
The Recovery Act, though, was more than twice as large as the 
children's share of the Federal budget. So spending on children was 
substituting for adding to what States were not or could not spend for 
children in the midst of the recession.
  I wanted to go through the Recovery Act and highlight things as it 
relates to children and the impact on our families. I wish to mention 
quickly some other pieces of good news, which we will develop later. 
One is the Children's Health Insurance Program, which, we know, was 
reauthorized in 2009. When the reauthorization is fully implemented, in 
a matter of 2 or 3 years now, we will have 14 million children covered 
by the Children's Health Insurance Program--a substantial achievement, 
no doubt. We would not be covering 14 million children with health care 
without that program. It was enacted when President Clinton was in 
office, enacted with bipartisan support. It hasn't always gotten 
bipartisan support from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, 
but on most days we have had a lot of support in both parties. 
Unfortunately, we have had to fight through Presidential vetoes in the 
last administration to get it reauthorized.
  That is a piece of good news.
  The Affordable Care Act--the health care bill--we tend to forget the 
positive impact that will have on children by making sure children's 
health insurance is protected, that we didn't go the way of, frankly, 
some people in both parties who wanted us to take a stand-alone, 
successful program, such as children's health insurance, and put it in 
the exchange. We didn't do that. It would have been a mistake, in my 
judgment, to put it in the exchange. That was good news. We didn't do 
that.
  Even the expansion and improvements we made relating to Medicaid 
coverage of even adults obviously has an impact on children because a 
healthy adult will mean that our children are in better shape, in most 
instances.
  The Child Nutrition Act I will mention briefly. Each of us in this 
Chamber gave a speech on how important it is to reauthorize the Child 
Nutrition Act. I and others will speak about this later in the week. 
That is a substantial piece of good news, if we can get it through the 
Senate and get it enacted, to extend the great protections of that 
legislation to our children.
  Let me go back to the Recovery Act. Here are some basic facts that 
are important. The Recovery Act has created or saved 3.5 million jobs, 
based upon an analysis by the Council of Economic Advisers. The act 
will meet the goal of creating or saving at least 3.5 million jobs. The 
jobs created will be in a range of industries, from clean energy to 
health care, with over 90 percent in the private sector. When we have 
that much of a positive development as it relates to jobs, that has a 
tremendous impact on our children. Job creation and economic recovery 
has a direct and significant impact on our kids. So the job creation 
number is very important for our kids.
  Second, nearly 40 percent of the Recovery Act provides direct relief 
to working and middle-class families. The act includes about $230 
billion in tax cuts for families, including a Making Work Pay tax 
credit for 95 percent of workers and their families. Obviously, when 
you provide that kind of a tax break for a middle-income family, that 
has a positive impact on children.
  The vast majority of the remainder of the act is provided in State 
fiscal relief and investments that also benefit working families. For 
instance, the Recovery Act provided direct support to children and 
families in the form of tax credits and increased Federal payments for 
a variety of programs, such as the Child Care Development Block Grant 
Program, which we all know by one of the many acronyms we use here, 
CCDBG, and Head Start.
  The Recovery Act, I argue--and I think the proof is irrefutable--has 
positively impacted children in creating millions of jobs; it 
positively impacted children as it relates to tax cuts for middle-
income families; and, thirdly, in a direct way when it comes to child 
care and Head Start. There was tremendous support for both of those in 
the Recovery Act.
  To give an example of what this means to real people in States such 
as Pennsylvania, people can now access programs to help families 
through this very difficult economic time. Families who have 
participated in Pennsylvania's Child Care Works program have benefited 
from Federal funding. I have one example of a single mother of two, 
Sarah Obringer, who is from Churchill, PA, Allegheny County. She was 
receiving assistance for her son to attend a quality child care setting 
while she was working. When her second child, a daughter, came along, 
there were no funds available, and her daughter was placed on the 
waiting list. So in this instance, you have one child in a quality 
setting and then another child, Sarah's daughter, was in another 
location. She had to drive to two separate locations in order to get 
her children the care she wanted for them. This was difficult because 
of the cost of gas, and she was unhappy her daughter's provider was not 
a high-quality provider such as her son's was. She was just hanging on, 
when she was told there was assistance available to place her daughter 
in the same program her son was in because of Recovery Act funding. 
Sarah said the following:

       It truly is a relief to have both of them in the same safe, 
     quality center. As a mom, it gives me piece of mind to be 
     able to go off to work knowing my children are well cared for 
     at the same place until I can pick them up together at the 
     end of the day. It is easier on them because they are 
     together, and it is easier on me.

  So that is an example of where the Recovery Act for one mother and 
one family has had a positive impact, because of direct support that 
helps a State childcare program--in this case in the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania.
  The Recovery Act funding for States to sustain and expand their Head 
Start in Early Head Start programs has also made a difference. Head 
Start, as many here know, is a national program that promotes school 
readiness for low-income children, financing their social, cognitive, 
and academic skills and finding nutritional and health services for 
children who need them. Early Head Start begins with prenatal services 
for pregnant women and continues working with the family until children 
are eligible for Head Start, usually at the age of 3.
  Here is an example from Pennsylvania. Annette Jones' grandson attends 
an Early Head Start program--the Keystone Babies classroom. That is at 
the Franklin Child Development Center. Annette writes:

       This program has been a true blessing to our whole family. 
     Landon is learning so much. He interacts with other children 
     and learns how to get along, through different activities and 
     experiences. Landon's classroom offers so much more than 
     traditional ``baby-sitting.'' Landon has grown so much. The 
     teachers in the classroom are loving and kind. They know what 
     each child needs. He has been referred to early intervention 
     services, based on information gathered by his teachers. 
     These services will provide extra support for Landon to be 
     successful. I am very thankful for the Keystone Babies 
     classroom, and I ask for continued funding and support for 
     this much needed program.

  So there is another example--in this case Annette Jones and her 
grandson Landon--of how one family is benefitting from not just Head 
Start itself and not just Early Head Start as a program but because of 
the increases to both programs in the Recovery Act.
  As I mentioned before, health care reform itself has been very 
helpful for our kids. As I mentioned before, when we are providing 
access to health care to more than 30 million Americans--many of them 
women and many of them of childbearing age--you don't have to be a 
public policy expert or even a health care or child development expert 
to know that will have a substantial disproportionately positive impact 
on children.
  I mentioned the Children's Health Insurance Program before and how 
the

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reauthorization of that--really the extension of that--will have a 
tremendous impact on our kids. We know insurers will also be prohibited 
under the new health care law from discriminating against children with 
preexisting conditions. That protection will go into effect for the 
first time in American history in September of this year.
  For those who have talked about repealing the act, well, if you 
repeal the act, you are repealing that protection for our kids. So I 
think if you are advocating that, you should think a little bit longer, 
talk to your constituents about whether they want protection for 
children with preexisting conditions to go into effect and then to be 
repealed. I don't think there are many people in America who support 
that--Democrat, Republican, or Independent.
  The Affordable Care Act will also include funding for evidence-based 
home visitation programs that provide new moms with the resources they 
need to raise healthy children and provide a stable home environment. 
We know President Obama has been a real leader when it comes to 
promoting not just the value of protecting our kids but also increasing 
Federal investment in this area. He has asked for investments in our 
kids that far surpass anything in recent history.
  I was also gratified, as so many were last week, when the 
Appropriations Committee reported out a Labor, Health and Education 
bill that for fiscal year 2011 includes an increase of $1 billion for 
that program. I mentioned before the child care and development block 
grant; an increase of nearly $1 billion for Head Start--the program I 
mentioned before as well.
  So getting those kinds of billion-dollar or so increases for Head 
Start and child care development block grants is critically important. 
And $300 million has been asked for by the administration for the Early 
Learning Challenge Fund, which is a program that would help provide 
competitive grants to States to raise the bar for early childhood 
programs. It will encourage States to coordinate quality improvement 
activities across early learning stages, including childcare, Head 
Start, and prekindergarten programs. It will expand the number of low-
income kids at high-quality programs and ensure that more kids enter 
kindergarten ready to learn and ready to succeed. States such as 
Pennsylvania, which have very good systems in place, will be rewarded 
for those initiatives over time.
  When I speak about the appropriations bill, I want to note the great 
leadership of Senator Tom Harkin and his work as an appropriator and 
for his constant effort to help our kids. I know when we talk about 
these investments--as I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks 
tonight--there is a belief that I and many people in both parties have 
that we have an obligation to do everything we can to make sure the 
bright light inside every child reaches the full measure of its 
potential. So even if a child has limitations, even if a child is born 
with a disadvantage, even if a child comes from a family who can't 
provide the kind of early learning or early care and education 
opportunities we would expect and hope every child could have, that 
collectively and in concert we have the systems in place, both public 
sector and private sector, to make sure the light inside every child, 
no matter where they live in America, is given the full measure of 
support and services that we can.
  I believe it is a sacred duty, not just a set of programs that we 
support. It is critically important that the light inside every child 
reaches the full measure of its potential. I can't say we are there 
yet. I can't say we are there yet on early learning. We are making 
progress. I can't say we are there yet in terms of combating hunger and 
providing good nutrition, but we are making progress. I can't say that 
even on health care--even with all the great advancements on the 
Affordable Care Act for the country at large or the Children's Health 
Insurance Program. Even when we have full implementation, for example, 
of children's health insurance, there may be millions of children still 
without health care coverage.
  I guess, finally, it would be safety. If there is a fourth area, it 
would be whether we are protecting our children from abuse and neglect. 
We have a long way to go there as well.
  So it is important for us to point out the bad news, the challenges, 
the difficulties, and the nightmares, but it is also important to 
remind ourselves when we are making progress on early care and 
education and a whole range of issues that relate to children.
  I have to say we have had a number of leaders over many years in the 
Senate from both parties, but there are very few who have contributed 
in the way the chairman of our Banking Committee has--someone I have 
served with both on that committee as well as one of the leaders on our 
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. I commend Senator 
Dodd, who is here on the Senate floor tonight with us, for his work for 
three decades in standing up for children in good times, when the 
economy was booming, and in bad times, as we are living through now 
when the unemployment rate is high and the recession is crippling the 
ability of families to provide for their kids and difficult times for 
State governments to provide for our kids.
  No matter whether it is a good economy or a bad economy, Senator Dodd 
has been fighting these battles year after year--literally, now, decade 
after decade. We are going to miss his voice, his leadership, his 
passion, and his effectiveness in getting legislation passed. But as I 
have noted for the public record and have told him personally, we will 
need him to come back and help us once in a while, even when he is not 
an incumbent Member of the Senate. We are grateful for his leadership. 
We take inspiration from that leadership, and I know his inspiration 
and his guidance will help us keep that bright light inside every 
child.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Merkley). The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I came to the Senate floor to express some 
comments on a different subject matter, but I would be remiss if I 
didn't express my gratitude to my friend for those very generous 
comments about our work on behalf of one out of four Americans who are 
under the age of 18--our children.
  As I have said to my friend from Pennsylvania, a relatively new 
Member of this body, although I will no longer be a Member come next 
January, after three decades--30 years--in the Senate, I take great 
comfort in knowing that he and the Senator from Oregon, the Presiding 
Officer, who is also a member of this committee, have expressed such 
tremendous interest in this subject matter since the very first days 
they arrived in the Senate.
  Like anyone else, I watched a number of people who were leaving as I 
was coming in three decades ago; people such as Hubert Humphrey, George 
McGovern, Bob Dole, Fritz Mondale--Vice President but also a Member of 
this body--and of course Ted Kennedy during our years together here, do 
tremendous work over the years on behalf of children and working 
families in our country. So I take a great deal of comfort in knowing 
that as I walk out of this Chamber there are people such as Jeff 
Merkley and Bob Casey who are going to continue this effort on behalf 
of those one in four Americans who don't vote, who don't have 
lobbyists, who don't make campaign contributions, and who don't have 
any of the traditional trappings that constituencies have to bring 
their case before the Congress of the United States. America's children 
will continue to have champions who are going to insist that children 
be at the forefront in the debates about resources and how we can 
provide for their needs.
  So I thank the Senator immensely for his work on this subject matter 
and look forward to watching with a great deal of pride as he continues 
those efforts. Just know that the Senator will have a cheerleader 
outside who will be doing everything he can to encourage his efforts. 
So I thank him very much for his comments.

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