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Floor Speech

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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 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.

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