Letter to the Honorable Thad Cochran, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations; the Honorable Barbara Mikulski, Vice Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations; the Honorable Roy Blunt, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; and the Honorable Patty Murray, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education - Increase Funding for the CCDBG
Letter
The Honorable Thad Cochran The Honorable Barbara Mikulski
Chairman Vice Chairwoman
Senate Committee on Appropriations Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Roy Blunt The Honorable Patty Murray
Chairman Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Subcommittee on Labor, Health and
Human Services, and Education Human Services, and Education
Senate Committee on Appropriations Senate Committee on Appropriations
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Chairman Cochran, Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, Chairman Blunt and Ranking Member Murray:
As you work to finalize the Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16) appropriations legislation, we urge you to appropriate funding at the highest possible level for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program.
The CCDBG program helps over 1.4 million children from nearly 900,000 low-income families across the United States gain access to quality, affordable child care while parents work or attend school. The dual purposes of the program are to promote families' economic self-sufficiency and foster healthy child development and school success by improving the overall quality of early learning and afterschool programs. The CCDBG program is the primary federal funding source dedicated to these purposes.
Last year, Congress passed a reauthorization of the CCBDG program with overwhelming bipartisan support. This legislation instituted important reforms to the CCDBG program, including strengthened health and safety standards for child care providers, mandatory background checks for all child care staff members, and new training requirements for child care providers. These reforms will require significant additional federal investment to implement. Without additional federal funding to supplement state resources, states will be faced with cutting the number of low-income children and families receiving reliable, affordable child care assistance through this program. Many states already have waiting lists for the CCDBG program as a result of funding shortfalls.
The recently enacted Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 increased domestic budget caps and made more funding available for critical programs funded through the appropriations process. Therefore, we urge you to use this opportunity to increase funding for the CCDBG program to the highest possible level to ensure that states receive adequate resources to implement the new CCDBG program requirements without reducing the number of low-income children and families served by the program. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Kirsten Gillibrand
United States Senator
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