Shaheen, Hassan Announce $19 Million in Federal Funds from COVID-19 Relief Bill Recently Signed into Law to Help Fund Child Care in New Hampshire
**This funding comes as a result of Shaheen’s leadership in negotiations for emergency COVID-19 relief, through which she secured substantial assistance for the child care sector**
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced today with U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) that New Hampshire will receive $19,867,522 through the recently-passed Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act to support child care programs during the pandemic.
Shaheen and Hassan have led efforts in Congress to assist the child care sector, which has been among the hardest hit in the pandemic. In the emergency COVID-19 relief legislation that passed Congress and was recently signed into law, Senator Shaheen negotiated $10 billion in emergency funds for child care industry support. These funds maintain the flexibility given to states through the CARES Act and can be used to provide child care assistance to families and support to child care providers in meeting their increased operating costs during the pandemic. The COVID relief legislation also ensured that states provide assistance to child care providers who have not previously received assistance through the Child Care Development Block Grant program and provide technical assistance to support child care providers in accessing grant funding. The bill also allowed states to expand child care assistance to essential workers and to provide child care payment relief to working families. Last month, she met with child care providers and advocates to discuss their economic struggles and how the federal assistance she fought for could help keep their doors open.
“Our child care providers are reaching a breaking point, so this federal assistance could not come soon enough,” said Senator Shaheen. “The child care sector is facing severe economic hardships that threaten permanent closure. To get parents back to work and to get our economy moving again, we need to ensure child care providers have the resources necessary to keep their doors open. These federal funds will provide some relief, but long-term assistance is critical to help child care providers and all those heavily impacted by the pandemic survive and recover from this crisis. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure our families have access to affordable child care, and fighting for child care funding will continue to be a top priority in upcoming COVID-19 relief negotiations.”
“Parents need to be able to get back to work so that their families can thrive and our economy can recover, but that can’t happen if parents don’t have access to reliable, affordable child care,” said Senator Hassan. “This $19.8 million in emergency relief will go a long way to support child care centers in New Hampshire and help ensure that they have the resources that they need to stay open, operate safely, and keep staff on payroll. I will continue working across the aisle as a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to secure additional resources for child care providers in New Hampshire and help expand access to this critical service.”
###
