Press Release

Reps. Wild, Scott, Sen. Murray Reintroduce Child Care for Working Families Act to Tackle Child Care Crisis

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The Child Care for Working Families Act will ensure families across America can find and afford the child care they need, dramatically expand access to high-quality preschool programs, and boost wages for early childhood workers

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Representative Susan Wild joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and U.S. Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, reintroduced their Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) joined Senator Murray in leading reintroduction of the legislation alongside 33 additional cosponsors in the Senate. Representative Wild (D-PA-07) joined Representative Scott in leading reintroduction of the legislation alongside 43 cosponsors in the House.

“More than 38,000 children in Pennsylvania are waitlisted, 1,600 classrooms have closed, and hundreds of child care positions remain unfilled. In the Lehigh Valley, over 1,500 children are waitlisted, and Carbon county is classified as a child care desert. That’s why I’m so proud to be here with my colleagues to mark the introduction of the Child Care for Working Families Act,” said Representative Wild. “Child care is unaffordable for many, or simply not available—this bill will help open more care providers and lower costs for parents, capping costs at 7% of a family’s income. Not only that, but it will raise wages for the people taking care of our kids and increase retention rates for quality care providers.”

Across the country, too many families cannot find—or afford—the high-quality child care they need so parents can go to work and children can thrive, and the worsening child care crisis is holding families, child care workers, businesses, and our entire economy back. Over the last three decades, the cost of child care has increased by 220%, forcing families—and mothers, in particular—to make impossible choices, and more than half of all families live in child care deserts. Meanwhile, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet on the poverty-level wages they are paid and child care providers are struggling to simply stay afloat. The crisis—which was exacerbated by the pandemic—is costing our economy dearly, to the tune of $122 billion in economic losses each year.

The Child Care for Working Families Act would tackle the child care crisis head-on: ensuring families can afford the child care they need, expanding access to more high-quality options, stabilizing the child care sector, helping ensure child care workers taking care of our nation’s kids are paid livable wages. The legislation will also dramatically expand access to pre-K, and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increased wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, which Murray and Scott have introduced every Congress since 2017, the typical family in America will pay no more than $10 a day for child care—with many families paying nothing at all—and no eligible family will pay more than 7% of their income on child care.

 

The Child Care for Working Families Act will:

Make child care affordable for working families.

  • The typical family earning the state median income will pay about $10 a day for child care.
  • No working family will pay more than seven percent of their income on child care.
  • Families earning below 85% of state median income will pay nothing at all for child care.
  • If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts, or Head Start agencies.

Improve the quality and supply of child care for all children and expand families child care options by:

  • Addressing child care deserts by providing grants to help open new child care providers in underserved communities.
  • Providing grants to cover start-up and licensing costs to help establish new providers.
  • Increasing child care options for children who receive care during non-traditional hours.
  • Supporting child care for children who are dual-language learners, children who are experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care.

Support higher wages for child care workers.

  • Child care workers would be paid a living wage and achieve parity with elementary school teachers who have similar credentials and experience.
  • Child care subsidies would cover the cost of providing high-quality care.

Dramatically expand access to high-quality pre-K.

  • States would receive funding to establish and expand a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
  • States must prioritize establishing and expanding universal local preschool programs within and across high-need communities.
  • If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts, or Head Start agencies.

Better support Head Start programs by providing the funding necessary to offer full-day, full-year programming and increasing wages for Head Start workers.

 

The legislation is endorsed by: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, All Our Kin, The Center for American Progress, The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Child Care Aware of America, Community Change Action, Council for Professional Recognition, Family Value @ Work, MomsRising, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Education Association (NEA), National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Oxfam, Save the Children, Save the Children Action Network, SEIU, YWCA, Zero to Three.

In the Senate, the bill is cosponsored by: Murray, Casey, Kaine, Hirono, Schumer, Sanders, Baldwin, Bennet, Blumenthal, Booker, Brown, Cantwell, Coons, Cortez Masto, Duckworth, Durbin, Feinstein, Fetterman, Gillibrand, Hassan, Heinrich, King, Klobuchar, Lujan, Markey, Menendez, Merkley, Murphy, Padilla, Reed, Rosen, Schatz, Shaheen, Smith, Van Hollen, Welch, Whitehouse, and Wyden.

In the House, the bill is cosponsored by: Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Kevin Mullin, John P. Sarbanes, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Chellie Pingree, Joaquin Castro, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Sean Casten, Julia Brownley, Hank Johnson, Eric Swalwell, Troy Carter, Jan Schakowsky, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Greg Landsman, Nikema Williams, Haley Stevens, Steve Cohen, Marcy Kaptur, Sylvia Garcia, William R. Keating, Dina Titus, Lauren Underwood, Daniel S. Goldman, Earl Blumenauer, Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Rosa L. DeLauro, Ruben Gallego, Donald Norcross, Andrea Salinas, Nydia M. Velazquez, Nanette Diaz Barragan, Sara Jacobs, Gwen Moore, Suzan Delbene, Kathy Castor, Seth Moulton, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Derek Kilmer, Terri A. Sewell, Josh Gottheimer, Colin Z. Allred, and Katherine Clark.

 

A fact sheet on the legislation is available HERE.

 

Bill text is available HERE.

 

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Olivia Taylor-Puckett