Supporting Affordable, Quality, Flexible Child Care

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the expansion of resources for the Child Care Development Block Grant program.

As a mother of a 5-year old, I understand the need for affordable, quality, and accessible child care. The Child Care Development Block Grant of 2014 extends the program's original intent of supporting low-income working families by ensuring that children are in a setting that will keep them safe and encourage healthy development.

This reauthorization is a solid step to help families meet the expense of child care as it includes ambitious new changes that are important for a high quality child care system. However, the sweeping new requirements called for under this Act are not adequately funded. As states implement the new requirements envisioned in this legislation without additional resources, I fear the result will be that eligible children and families may lose access to child care assistance.

To successfully implement the much-needed improvements included in this legislation, we must re-double our efforts to increase mandatory and discretionary funding in order to meet the new standards set out under this program. As the federal government continues to increase expectations for child care providers and programs without new funding, I am concerned that already high turnover may be exacerbated and poverty wages for child care providers will remain the norm.

Families in poverty are spending 30% or more of their income on child care. Child care costs are simply unaffordable for many workers in low-wage jobs. With stagnant wages, this leaves many low-income working families struggling to find a safe place to care for their children. The average annual cost of full-time care for one child can be nearly $4,000 to over $16,000, especially in areas with high costs of living, like Los Angeles County.

A new National Women's Law Center analysis of state and national data shows that more than half of mothers who have very young children and work in low-wage jobs are raising children on their own; half are working full time; and over one-third are poor. They are disproportionately African-American or Hispanic.

I urge the Administration, in its implementation of this Act, to balance the requirements placed on states, child care providers, and an already under-resourced and stressed child care system with a realistic assessment of the new resources made available for implementation.

Expanding access to affordable quality child care is about the safety, economic development, and services that working families everywhere in the U.S. deserve.

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