IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1052 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that all young children 
and families should have access to high-quality child care that is afford-
able for families. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 16, 2020 
Ms. BONAMICI (for herself, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Mr. COOPER, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. 
SUOZZI, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. HECK, Mr. 
LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. TRONE, Mr. CA´RDENAS, 
Ms. NORTON, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, 
Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, and Ms. DELAURO) submitted the following reso-
lution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
all young children and families should have access to 
high-quality child care that is affordable for families. 
Whereas today’s working parents depend on high-quality 
child care so they can work and support their families, 
and approximately 12.5 million children under 5 are in 
a regular child care arrangement; 
Whereas 
the 
United 
States 
economy 
loses 
$57,000,000,000,000 annually in lost earnings, lost pro-
ductivity, and lost revenue due to child care challenges; 
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Whereas child care is difficult to find for millions of families, 
particularly for the approximately 58 percent of low-in-
come children younger than 6 years old whose parents 
work non-standard hours, when only 8 percent of child 
care centers provide evening or weekend care; 
Whereas in the last 10 years the cost of child care has in-
creased by 25 percent; 
Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services rec-
ommends that no more than 7 percent of household in-
come go toward child care payments; however, middle-in-
come families spend as much as 14 percent on child care 
and low-income families spend approximately 35 percent 
of their income on child care; 
Whereas the average annual cost of center-based child care 
for an infant in 30 States and Washington, DC, is higher 
than the average in-state tuition and fees at a public 
four-year institution; 
Whereas families of color face income gaps that make quality 
child care even less affordable resulting in Black, Indige-
nous, and other children of color less likely to attend li-
censed care, which tends to be higher quality than non- 
licensed care; 
Whereas high-quality child care and early education, espe-
cially for disadvantaged children, helps children thrive in 
school and beyond by decreasing special education place-
ment and reducing grade retention, by decreasing child 
abuse and neglect and juvenile arrests, by increasing high 
school graduation and college attendance, and by increas-
ing employment; 
Whereas the eligibility requirements to receive assistance 
under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act 
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of 1990 (CCDGB), the primary source of Federal fund-
ing support, exclude most American children from Fed-
eral child care assistance; 
Whereas the CCDBG still serves only a fraction of families 
eligible for Federal support, with only 16 percent of eligi-
ble children receiving Federal child care assistance; 
Whereas these issues affect all families, but disproportion-
ately affect women, many of whom are unable to enter 
the workforce due to the lack of affordable, high-quality 
child care for their children; 
Whereas the vast majority of the formal child care workforce 
is comprised of women, including 40 percent women of 
color, and women also do most of the unpaid child care 
work in families; 
Whereas increased pay for workers in the child care industry 
improves the quality of child care for young children and 
reflects the value of their highly skilled work; 
Whereas to recruit and retain a qualified child care workforce 
for young children, child care staff for young children 
should be paid as much as K–12 staff with equivalent 
education and experience; 
Whereas a full-time living wage is needed for all child care 
workers to meet their families’ essential needs, but the 
median child care center worker earns $10.72 per hour 
and more than half of child care workers receive Federal 
income support to support their families’ well-being; 
Whereas high-quality child care that works for everyone is es-
sential for a strong economy and future, working families 
also need universal preschool, child nutrition programs 
that promote health and wellness, fair work schedules, 
living wages, paid family and medical leave, paid sick 
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days, and credit in the Social Security system for time 
spent caregiving to support their well-being; 
Whereas when families are guaranteed high-quality, flexible, 
available, and affordable child care, business productivity 
improves, parents have a greater likelihood of finding and 
keeping employment, and children do better in school and 
in life; 
Whereas fixing the child care system is also an issue of racial 
justice such that ensuring that families of color have ac-
cess to high-quality, affordable child care is an important 
part of dismantling the systemic underinvestment in 
Black, Indigenous, and other families and workers of 
color; 
Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic exacerbated existing prob-
lems in child care and created new problems, including 
providing safe emergency care while providers are strug-
gling with significant reductions in revenue; 
Whereas according to a study conducted by the National As-
sociation for the Education of Young Children in March 
2020, 47 percent of child care providers would not sur-
vive a closure of more than two weeks without significant 
support; and 
Whereas an analysis by the Center for American Progress es-
timated that, without adequate public support, 4.5 mil-
lion child care slots could be lost permanently: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives should 
pass robust child care legislation that will stabilize the 
child care industry and that will— 
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(1) provide child care assistance to all working 
families that need it, including low- and middle-in-
come families who struggle to afford the cost of 
high-quality child care and underpaid families who 
are too often left behind; 
(2) make child care affordable, with no working 
family earning below 150 percent of State median 
income having to pay more than 7 percent of their 
income for child care and families most in need pay-
ing nothing; 
(3) ensure that child care is available so that 
parents in today’s 24-hour economy can access high- 
quality care when and where they need it—during 
weekends, and nights, as their job schedules 
change—with options across school, center, and 
home settings; 
(4) guarantee that all families eligible for child 
care will receive it, by investing in the expansion of 
child care supply and creating a system that is ap-
propriately funded to meet the need of America’s 
families; 
(5) improve the quality of child care by guaran-
teeing child care workers a living wage and wage 
parity with K–12 staff with equivalent education and 
experience, by improving training opportunities, and 
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