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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC), held a shadow hearing, “The State of Child Care in America: Addressing the Looming Funding Cliffs for Women and Families,” chaired by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12).Despite the steep impact the child care crisis and funding cliffs have on families, no House Republican-led Committee has held a hearing on child care this Congress.

This hearing examined how critical emergency stabilization funds that Democrats passed via the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) helped save the child care industry, kept child care providers open, and ensured working families had the child care they needed to go to work. But these critical funds will run out on September 30, 2023—and the ongoing and projected impact for states, child care providers, families, and working women will be devastating. At the hearing, witnesses and members highlighted the impact ARPA funds had on the child care industry and families, the need for immediate action to address the looming funding cliffs and the urgent fight to solve the child care crisis, once and for all.

The hearing included expert testimony from Laura Valle Gutierrez, Fellow at The Century Foundation, Melissa Boteach, Vice President for Income Security and Child Care/Early Learning of National Women’s Law Center, Carolina Reyes, Owner and Director of Arco Iris Bilingual Children’s Center, and Laura Weeldreyer, Executive Director of Maryland Family Network.

“Oregon families in urban and rural areas have told me that child care costs more than their housing. This is unacceptable,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. “Democrats recognized the need to invest in affordable, high-quality child care and early learning in the American Rescue Plan. But the care economy is facing a fiscal cliff when the American Rescue Plan Act stabilization grants end on September 30th. I hope this hearing will encourage our colleagues across the aisle to join us in building an economy that will leave no one behind.”

“It’s time for national childcare policy and funding that works for all our families. No family, child, educator, or childcare provider should be left behind and we must act now to provide equitable access to early learning and care for our families and communities. We must invest in programs that support and uplift early childhood learning, create incentives to help with workforce retention for our care economy by decreasing the income gap for workers, and create equitable and decent living wages for working families so they don’t have to choose between childcare or work,” said Congresswoman Tlaib.

Additional testimony from the witnesses includes:

The pandemic amplified an already precarious child care crisis.

• Melissa Boteach: “Even prior to COVID-19, more than half of Americans lived in a child care desert, or a neighborhood with an insufficient supply of licensed child care.”
• Laura Valle Gutierrez: “All told, the United States lost an estimated 20,000 child care programs in the first two years of the pandemic, nearly 10 percent of its pre-pandemic amount of child care programs.”
• Laura Weeldreyer: “The pandemic proved, as if more proof were needed, that child care is an essential public good that cannot thrive in a broken private market. For child care to do its indispensable job, it needs substantial and sustained public investment.”

The American Rescue Plan Act played a crucial role in stabilizing and saving child care services.

• Melissa Boteach: “These resources were a lifeline…over the course of the pandemic, the relief dollars reached 220,000 child care programs – serving up to 10 million children and their families… ninety-two percent of surveyed child care programs that received stabilization grants said the grants helped keep their program open, and one third said that without these relief dollars, their program would have closed permanently.”
• Laura Valle Gutierrez, citing a testimonial from a family child care owner: “Parents cannot pay for the actual cost of child care services. The stabilization grant subsidized some operation costs in my program to keep tuition affordable and to attract and retain staff.”
• Carolina Reyes: “ARPA funding was absolutely crucial and fundamental for my center's survival. Without ARPA grant money, my center would have closed in 2020 or 2021.”

The loss of funding will result in a devastating impact on the child care sector and workers.

• Laura Valle Gutierrez: “We found that when the funds expire at the end of September, 3.2 million children could lose their child care slots, as programs close, staffing shortages grow, and tuition costs rise.”
• Melissa Boteach: “This median pay for child care workers is $13.7127 and a 2018 study from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment showed that a majority of child care workers are paid so little that they are eligible for public assistance programs.”
• Laura Weeldreyer: “The economic impact of child care issues affecting working parents with children under the age of five is staggering. In Maryland alone, the loss of $1.28 billion annually in economic output and $2.41 billion annually for employers underscores the urgent need for systemic change.”

Prioritizing child care is an investment in our economy, our infrastructure, and American families.

• Laura Valle Gutierrez: “The stakes are high: 70,000 child care programs; 200,000 early education jobs; 3 million children and their parents; and nearly $11 billion in state economic revenue. When America decides something is a priority, we find the funding. It’s time to prioritize child care to ensure all our families are able to thrive.”
• Melissa Boteach: “Child care is infrastructure. It holds up our economy. It bridges workers and jobs. And similar to physical infrastructure, child care is a public good, with investments resulting in immediate and long-term positive externalities.”
• Carolina Reyes: “We are professionals that love what we do because we strongly believe that the education of small children will better ensure successful leaders for our nation. But we aren’t just a field of a love. We are a field that is relevant and needed for all. And we can’t do this alone. We need you. We need support: financial and moral.”
• Laura Weeldreyer: “Let’s be clear: child care is infrastructure – laying the groundwork for stronger, more resilient Americans that can withstand the challenges that lie ahead. Think of this funding as the scaffolding that supports the construction of a better future for our young children and their families; an investment as essential as the roads, bridges, and the power grid.”

Original source can be found here.