Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am here to discuss the Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act, which is a bill my colleagues Senators Shaheen, Boxer, Gillibrand, and I introduced today. It will update the child and dependent care tax credit to offer working families more relief from the rising costs of childcare.

When the child and dependent care tax credit was enacted originally, kids were playing with Rubik's Cubes and listening to eight-track tapes. As we all know, a lot has changed since then, and one of the most important changes our country has seen since that time is the rise of women in the labor force.

Since the mid-1970s, women's participation in the labor force has increased by 23 percent, and most women now do work full time. In two-thirds of families with dependent children, both parents work outside the home.

Over a period of time in which the middle class has been squeezed by an increasingly global economy with higher prices for everything from health care to college, women joining the labor force has helped to ease some of those burdens for families. In fact, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has called the increasing participation of women in the workforce: ``A major factor in sustaining growing families incomes.'' A recent study by the Center for American Progress found between 1979 and 2012, the U.S. economy grew by 11 percent as a result of women joining the labor force.

As we look for ways to create jobs and expand growth in the 21st century, it is clear our country's economic success goes hand in hand with that of women and working families. We have to make sure our policies are updated to meet the needs of today's working parents, and one area we need to take a look at is childcare. The cost of childcare has skyrocketed in recent years. Full-time childcare for just one child can cost families more than $10,000 annually, and for families below the poverty level--those who are already struggling the most to make ends meet--childcare can, on average, swallow one-third of what those parents are able to bring home.

This is a real problem for far too many hard-working parents, and it is a problem for our economy, because when parents are struggling to find reliable, safe, affordable care for their children during the day, it is harder for them to give their all on the job. Even worse, childcare is so expensive, some parents--most often mothers--are deciding it is not even worth returning to the workforce. This means families are being held back from gaining the economic security they are working so hard to achieve.

The child and dependent care tax credit was of course intended to help parents overcome these barriers, but today the benefit working parents get from the credit is a small fraction of what childcare actually costs. Because of how it is structured, the lowest income working families cannot benefit from it at all, meaning they have to bear the full brunt of childcare costs on very low wages.

It is clear this credit is one of the policies we need to bring into the 21st century, and that is exactly what we were doing when we introduced the Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act. This legislation will boost the benefit working families can receive for childcare costs, and it will make the child and dependent care tax credit refundable so those working parents who are struggling the most to make ends meet can better afford the childcare they need to work and support their families.

If Congress passes our bill, next year working families could see a credit of $1,600 for one child or $3,200 for more than one child. That is almost three times the maximum benefit many families are currently eligible to receive.

Our bill would be a real help to hard-working families who are trying to raise their children, pay the bills, save for college, and put something away for retirement. It could break down one of the biggest barriers mothers face when thinking about reentering the workforce.

The need to expand access to affordable childcare is something I often talk about with my own constituents in Washington State. During those conversations, what I hear from parents is: I am so glad you focused on this. It is a real issue for us.

Updating this tax credit to reflect the needs of families in today's economy would be a critical step forward in terms of our larger effort to ensure that working parents, dads and moms, have a fair shot.

I believe by putting in place policies to make childcare more affordable, make sure women get the equal pay they deserve by raising the minimum wage so millions of workers have a better shot at lifting themselves out of poverty, and by taking steps to ensure students are not overwhelmed by debt after they graduate from college, we could break down some very real barriers that are holding our families and our economy back. There is no reason we should not start that right now with the bill we are introducing today.

I hope all of our colleagues will take a minute, look at this--Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act--and take this seriously. I hope we will be able to make it easier for moms and dads to afford safe reliable care for their children while they are at work. I think we can all agree parents deserve to have that peace of mind. I believe if we enact this bill and build on it with other critical policies to help working families, our economy will be much stronger now and over the long term.

I thank Senators Shaheen, Boxer, and Gillibrand again for all of their hard work and leadership on the part of working families.

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