Date: 2013-03-13
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

I appreciate your input and for being here tonight to participate in this Special Order. Youve raised some very relevant points. I want to talk about the special impact the Ryan budget has on the Pell Grant cuts. One of the ways women try to climb out of poverty and close the pay gap is through education. especially higher education. And as we all know. college tuition has far outpaced inflation for years and years. Thats why programs such as the Pell Grant program are so important. And fully twothirds of Pell Grant recipients are women. Yet again. the Ryan Republican budget hurts women college students by cutting nearly $83 billionthats with a "b"-from Pell Grants over the next 10 years. Theyre doing this even though Congress already enacted and paid for annual mandatory inflationary increases in 2010 and recently cut Pell Grant benefits and eligibility to control costs. So the Ryan Republican budget will make it that much harder for women to climb the ladder of opportunity. get a college degree. get a decent job and start or maintain a family. It just does not need to be that way. As President Obama has said. the math in this Ryan budget does not add up. and the math that is there cuts programs helping working women and single moms. The Ryan budget will be devastating for working women. lowincome families and young women trying to afford college. Head Start. early childhood care. food stamps. Pell Grants for college. and so much more would be slashed under this budget. Lets start with early childhood education. Many researchers and economists tell us that the very best investment that we can make in our society and in our children is in early childhood education. These cuts in the Ryan budget are on top of the $85 billion from sequestration. which are already in effect. Because of the sequestration. 70.000 children nationwide will be kicked off of Head Start. Another 30.000 lowincome children will lose child care assistance because of the cuts to the child care and development block grants. Thats a total of 100.000 lowincome kids being kicked out of early childhood services. Thats already happening as we are speaking tonight on the floor. The Ryan budget would double those cuts. which would mean another 100.000 kids losing services. What are the working moms of 200.000 children across the country supposed to do? Women only earn 74 cents to the dollar of what men earn in similar jobs. While they are at work. how are these women going to afford to take care of their kids when they lose these services? The answer is theyll need to find another affordable child care option. which. if youre a mom. you know how difficult that is. Or youll have to cut back on hours at work because there is no child care. This will only widen the already existing economic divide that separates men and women. Its not just the economic divide between men and women. The gap between the haves and the havenots. because of the Ryan budget and the Bush years. has never been greater. but thats not all. Many of these same families would also lose the assistance they need so that they can feed their families. Now from the great State of Maryland is the ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. ELIJAH CUMMINGS. Its good to hear that likeminded men have joined us in this Special Order on the Ryan budget and how it affects American families. Thank you for being here.