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Statement

The Child Care for Working Families Act Is a Smart Investment that Will Help Families and Our Economy Thrive

April 22, 2021
Early Care & Education

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement from leaders of MomsRising, the national online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families, on the introduction of the Child Care for Working Families Act in the U.S. House and Senate today:

“If we are to have a just, equitable, robust recovery from the pandemic, lawmakers must finally invest in our child care system and in the care infrastructure our country needs. That is why we are so pleased that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act today. It provides a comprehensive solution to our child care crisis by making child care affordable for working families, expanding access to pre-school programs, improving the quality of care, and increasing compensation and professional training for child care workers, who are mostly women and disproportionately women of color and who have been paid poverty wages and denied benefits for too long. America’s moms want Congress to pass the Child Care for Working Families Act immediately, so President Biden can sign it into law.”

Statement of Nina Perez, National Director, Early Learning, MomsRising

“The pandemic has exacerbated our country’s child care crisis, forcing 32 percent of women ages 25 - 34 out of the labor force, with Black women and Latinas facing compounded harms due to long standing structural racism. Today, women’s workforce participation is at a 30-year low, which is catastrophic for families and our economy. We cannot recover without the kind of investment the Child Care for Working Families Act supports.

“Under this bill, there will be limits on what working families have to spend on child care and families earning less than 75 percent of their state’s median income will not have to spend anything at all. It supports child care for dual-language learners and for children experiencing homelessness and in foster care, while creating more child care options for children, infants and toddlers with disabilities.

It is both job-creating and job-enabling; it will help jumpstart our economy by creating some 700,000 new child care jobs, while enabling parents and caregivers to work.

“All children deserve high-quality, safe, enriching early learning opportunities. All parents and caregivers deserve safe, enriching care options for their children. And all childhood educators deserve sustainable jobs and fair, family-supporting wages. The Child Care for Working Families Act is a smart investment that will help families and our economy thrive.”

Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.