***WATCH A RECORDING OF THE PRESS CALL HERE***

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Child Care for Every Family Network, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and Family Forward Oregon hosted a press call calling out Republicans’ efforts to undermine our nation’s child care system. Child care leaders and advocates highlighted the Republicans’ proposal to make massive cuts to programs that states use to fund child care–including SSBG and TANF–all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and mass deportations. Additionally, they spoke about the recent mass firings at the agencies that administer child care programs and Head Start.

The Child Care for Every Family Network also endorsed the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act, led by Senator Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Representative Danny Davis, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare.

This bill would make critical investments in the Child Care Entitlement to States (CCES), which would help boost child care supply, support the child care workforce, and expand child care access and affordability. This bill is also a stark contrast to the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ non-stop attacks on the child care funding and workforce that support parents and children across the country.

“At a time when families are struggling to find affordable child care so they can work and pay their bills, Republicans in Congress are making their priorities clear with 40,000 kids about to lose their child care to pay for another handout to billionaires. Taken together with the absolute gutting of HHS and the offices responsible for Head Start and child care, America’s child care crisis is on track to only grow worse,” said Sen. Wyden. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Our bill invests in working families by making sure more families can get child care and new child care centers can be built to increase slots, while also guaranteeing a living wage for the essential workers who staff them. That is where priorities should lie.”

“High-quality, affordable child care is essential to the economic well-being of families, businesses, and our country,” said Rep. Davis. “The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act would provide $20 billion in guaranteed grants to states, tribes, and territories to make child care affordable.  Further, the bill would create $5 billion in new grants to improve child care workforce, supply, quality, and access in communities experiencing child care shortages. It is critical that Congress acts now to help working families by stabilizing our nation’s child care system and to reject the dangerous Republican cuts to child care.”

“Right now, this country is facing a serious child care crisis–parents are struggling to find or afford child care, child care workers are making poverty wages, and child care providers are struggling to keep their doors open and make ends meet. Republicans’ proposal is to make this crisis even worse by cutting child care funding and putting more wealth in the hands of billionaires over supporting our families,” said Andrea Paluso and Erica Gallegos, Co-Executive Directors of the Child Care for Every Family Network. “But there is another way. Senator Wyden and Warren’s Building Child Care for a Better Future Act will boost child care funding, instead of taking a hatchet to it. We are proud to endorse this critical bill that will invest in building our child care supply, support the child care workforce, and help make child care easier to find and afford. The contrast couldn’t be clearer: support for care or support for cuts. Instead of non-stop Republican threats to cut child care, Congress must pass the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act.”

“The proposed Republican budget resolution will significantly harm programs that meet the needs of children and families across the country. In fact, our analysis shows this proposal could lead to 40,000 children losing child care and millions more having their care disrupted,” said Stephanie Schmit, director of child care and early education at the Center for Law and Social Policy. “That’s why we applaud the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act and thank Senator Ron Wyden, Representative Danny Davis, and other sponsors of the bill for their continued leadership in strengthening child care in our nation.”

“At a time when President Trump and congressional Republicans are proposing dramatic cuts to child care, the Building Child Care for A Better Future Act provides meaningful investments that would make a real dent in addressing the child care crisis,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. “With families at a breaking point with the soaring costs of child care, we need real, sustained investment to make care more affordable and to invest in the early learning workforce. If Congress is serious about lowering child care costs, they’ll pass this bill instead of pretending that small tax credits—which provide only a fraction of relief that families need—are a real solution.”

“A budget isn’t just about numbers. It is a moral document – it’s about lives. It speaks volumes about the values of those who created it,” said Candice Vickers, Executive Director of Family Forward Oregon. “The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ latest budget resolution is a betrayal of Oregon families that will pay for billionaire tax breaks at the expense of working families. The Building Child Care for A Better Future Act is our opportunity to build collective power and do what’s right for our nation’s kids and families. We demand better. We deserve better. And we’ll fight for it.”

“Recent Congressional Republican steps to cut child care assistance to 40,000 families come on top of the Trump Administration firing the federal workers who administer the federal child care program and the Head Start program, including the closure of federal regional offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle,” said Ruth Freidman, Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation. “This will ultimately mean child care will become less safe for children, more expensive for parents, and even harder to find across all 50 states. Senator Wyden and Congressman Davis are offering real solutions that would help American families immediately.

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Child Care for Every Family Network es el movimiento y campaña nacional para transformar el cuidado infantil, que representa a más de 1,500 proveedores de cuidado infantil, familias afectadas, organizaciones estatales y nacionales y organizadores en todo el país. Más información: childcareforeveryfamily.org.