Title: 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.
Policy area: Families

Summary:
This resolution expresses support for legislation to

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1052 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 affordable for families.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 16, 2020

  Ms. Bonamici (for herself, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. 
  Blumenauer, Mr. Cooper, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. 
Suozzi, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Heck, Mr. Larson 
of Connecticut, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Trone, Mr. Cardenas, Ms. Norton, Ms. 
 Adams, Mr. Takano, Ms. Clark of Massachusetts, Mr. Ruppersberger, and 
Ms. DeLauro) submitted the following resolution; 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 productivity, and lost revenue due to child care 
        challenges;
Whereas child care is difficult to find for millions of families, particularly 
        for the approximately 58 percent of low-income 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 increased by 25 percent;
Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services recommends that no more than 
        7 percent of household income go toward child care payments; however, 
        middle-income 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, Indigenous, and other children of 
        color less likely to attend licensed care, which tends to be higher 
        quality than non-licensed care;
Whereas high-quality child care and early education, especially for 
        disadvantaged children, helps children thrive in school and beyond by 
        decreasing special education placement and reducing grade retention, by 
        decreasing child abuse and neglect and juvenile arrests, by increasing 
        high school graduation and college attendance, and by increasing 
        employment;
Whereas the eligibility requirements to receive assistance under the Child Care 
        and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDGB), the primary source of 
        Federal funding support, exclude most American children from Federal 
        child care assistance;
Whereas the CCDBG still serves only a fraction of families eligible for Federal 
        support, with only 16 percent of eligible children receiving Federal 
        child care assistance;
Whereas these issues affect all families, but disproportionately 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 essential 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 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 access 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 problems in child care and 
        created new problems, including providing safe emergency care while 
        providers are struggling with significant reductions in revenue;
Whereas according to a study conducted by the National Association for the 
        Education of Young Children in March 2020, 47 percent of child care 
        providers would not survive a closure of more than two weeks without 
        significant support; and
Whereas an analysis by the Center for American Progress estimated that, without 
        adequate public support, 4.5 million 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--
            (1) provide child care assistance to all working families 
        that need it, including low- and middle-income 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 paying 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 appropriately funded to 
        meet the need of America's families;
            (5) improve the quality of child care by guaranteeing child 
        care workers a living wage and wage parity with K-12 staff with 
        equivalent education and experience, by improving training 
        opportunities, and by giving workers a voice on the job to 
        advocate for higher workplace standards and standards of care 
        for the children they serve;
            (6) expand access to full-day, full-school year Head Start 
        services and to high-quality preschool; and
            (7) provide sufficient Federal investment to ensure 
        resources for both high-quality jobs and affordable child care.
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