WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Child Care for Every Family Network endorsed Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA)’s Child Care for Working Families Act, which ensures that families can afford high-quality child care and that child care workers are paid a living wage.  

Andrea Paluso and Erica Gallegos, Co-Executive Directors of the Child Care for Every Family Network, released the following statement:

“Our country is deep in a child care crisis—one created and sustained by decades of underinvestment, racial and gender inequity, and policy choices that put corporate profits over community care. Families are being pushed to the brink trying to find and afford care, while the majority-women workforce—disproportionately Black, brown, immigrant, and low-income women—continues to be underpaid and undervalued. This system wasn’t designed to work and we’re seeing that play out in real time. 

“The Child Care for Working Families Act would create a powerful course correction, treating child care as the essential public good it is, not a luxury for the few. While Republican Members of Congress advanced their Big Ugly Bill that sidelines working families and guts the programs our communities rely on, we applaud Senator Murray and Representative Scott for showing the leadership this moment demands. Their bill would provide a step toward a future where more of our families can thrive and where child care providers are better respected, protected, and paid.”

The introduction of the Child Care for Working Families Act comes immediately after Republicans in Congress passed their Big Ugly Bill, which did nothing to address the child care crisis and instead will make it harder for families to raise their children as it makes major cuts to health care and food assistance programs. Many families of color, immigrant families, and low-income families who struggle to afford child care are the same families being targeted by Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill. Additionally, nearly 28 percent of child care workers are covered by Medicaid, and 43 percent of early educator families rely on one or more public safety nets such as Medicaid or SNAP to make ends meet.

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