Budget Bill: Invest in Equitable, Quality Child Care For All Communities

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to support properly and equitably fund quality, affordable child care for all families. The Senate Finance Committee's budget reconciliation bill fails to adequately address the child care crisis that working families face. While it includes modest expansions to certain tax credits related to child care, these provisions largely benefit higher-income families and corporations that already provide child care to their employees. This leaves a large gap for families and early educators who struggle most with accessing and affording quality child care. The proposed tax changes also do little to increase the overall supply of child care or make care more affordable for low- and middle-income families. At the same time, the deep cuts to programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and other family supports threaten to make child care even less accessible for those who can least afford it, or force a choice upon families because they lose medical and food assistance. The bill also harms immigrant communities, many of whom make up a vital part of the early educator workforce. Overall, the budget reconciliation bill depletes revenue sources that could fund major investments in the child care system while providing only minimal child care assistance that largely excludes those most in need. Instead, to truly address the child care crisis, we need a substantially increased investment in building a robust child care system with affordable options for all families, good compensation for early educators, and an expansion of direct child care assistance targeted to those struggling most with the high costs. I urge you to reject the current reconciliation bill's inadequate child care provisions and lack of investment, and instead prioritize the transformative funding increase needed to ensure affordable, quality child care is available to all families in our communities. Thank you for your attention to this matter.