Effects of H.R. 1 on Women and Children

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Boxer for her leadership. I thank Senator Mikulski for the work she has done to organize us this afternoon, to point out just what is being proposed by our colleagues in the other Chamber.

We need to address our long-term deficit. We all know that. We need to make some hard choices to balance the budget. But there is a right way and a wrong way to do that. The right way is to first look at things such as eliminating the billions of dollars in duplicative programs that were identified just this week by the GAO. The wrong way is to address the deficit by doing what our colleagues in the House did when they slashed funding for services that are critical to middle-class families and our future prosperity.

The House Republican budget cuts include a $1.1 billion cut to Head Start and childcare. This is money that is critical to so many working families in New Hampshire and across the country. Let me put it into perspective. A cut this size would mean that nationally over 200,000 children would be kicked out of Head Start and an additional 360,000 children would lose childcare opportunities.

I have three daughters and seven grandchildren. So I understand, like so many mothers do, how difficult it is to juggle work and family obligations. I appreciate how important it is for working parents to understand that their children are being supervised by quality caregivers. I also understand that a working parent can be a productive member of the workforce only when they know their children are safe.

When I was Governor, we asked for a report to be done on childcare in New Hampshire. We found in that report that there is a direct result between quality childcare and the productivity of their parents in the workforce. Childcare is expensive. Quality childcare can easily top $10,000 per child per year--an amount that is out of reach for so many working families who are trying to make ends meet--especially in this economy.

The unemployment rate in this country is 9 percent. We should be putting our focus on creating jobs today and helping to build a strong workforce for the future. The proposed budget that the House Republicans have done would do the opposite.

Research shows that the quality care and early childhood development is critical to preparing our children for tomorrow's jobs. We know that the first 5 years are the most important in the development of a child's brain. During these years, children develop their cognitive, social, emotional, and language skills that form a solid foundation for their lives.

Economists point to the strong return on investment we get for intervention early in life. For every $1 we spend on quality early learning, we return up to $17. These same experts cite an increase in productivity, workforce readiness, and in graduation rates among children who are in quality early childhood programs. In addition, they have also found out that for those children there is a decrease in special education, crime rates, welfare dependency, and in other behavioral problems.

One of the things that made me aware of this direct relationship was going to my first Governors' conference after I got elected. I heard a presentation on brain development. The presenter showed that the brain scan of a child who had quality early learning looked very different than the brain scan of those children who did not. They showed a graph that demonstrated that the way a child's brain develops is inversely proportional to our investment. In other words, we are making the smallest investments in the years when it would make the most impact on how a child develops. This made such an impression on me that I went back home to New Hampshire and focused so much of my time as Governor on the importance of early learning.

When I became chair of the education commission of the State in my second term as Governor, this became the top priority for me and for ECS. There is no doubt--and we can look at all the data--that helping working families afford quality childhood care and education programs has immediate and long-term benefits.

I urge my colleagues to reject the shortsighted, reckless cuts that have been made in the House Republican budget and, instead, invest in our future and the future of our children and families.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source