The Child Care for Every Family Network (La Red) applauds President Biden for using the State of the Union as an opportunity to uplift the importance of tax fairness and in encouraging us to “imagine a future with affordable child care – so millions of families can get the care they need and still go to work and help the economy grow.” We’ve never had an administration that is so willing to listen to child care providers, families, and care workers.

The Biden-Harris administration has consistently shown that they are prioritizing creating a child care system that works for every family. In the last year they have:

• Requested that Congress pass $16 billion in emergency funding for child care
• Passed new rules for Health and Human Services that will…
  • Make it easier for families to participate in the CCDBG program by encouraging states to eliminate red tape and streamline enrollment processes
  • Cap co-payments for participating families to no more than 7% of income
  • Encourage states to eliminate co-payments entirely for families of children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, children in Head Start, and families at or below the federal poverty level
  • Direct states to increase pay rates for more than 140,000 childcare providers and ensuring that payments are met on time

The Child Care for Every Family Network—which includes over 1,000 state and national organizations, impacted families, and child care providers—calls on Republicans in the House and Senate to support President Biden’s $16 billion emergency funding request for child care and work to pass long-term transformational investments in building a national child care system. Every day they continue to obstruct progress, our families, communities, and economy suffers.

Recent polling from GQR has shown that 73% of voters of every political persuasion support a universal child care system where providers are paid family-sustaining wages, and every family has access to child care that meets their unique needs. 

We need Congress to adequately invest in a child care system that ensures our kids, families, providers, and communities can thrive now.

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