Shaheen Joins Call on Biden Administration to Make Urgent Investments in Child Care
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tina Smith (D-MN) in a bicameral letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to address the ongoing child care crisis and realize his vision for a better America by investing in the child care sector. The lawmakers called for urgent passage of President Biden’s plan to reduce child care costs for families, expand pre-K opportunities for 3 and 4-year-olds and invest in the early childhood workforce and its infrastructure.
“Addressing our nation’s child care crisis remains essential to boosting labor force participation among mothers, helping lower everyday expenses for families and child care providers who are facing higher costs due to inflation, and ensuring all children access the benefits of quality child care that support positive physical and brain development,” wrote the lawmakers. “As you know, the high costs of child care and the difficulty of finding quality, affordable child care are challenges facing too many families across the country.”
The lawmakers continued: “Now is the time to make additional comprehensive, long-term investments in affordable, high-quality child care to build on the critical but largely short-term investments made through the American Rescue Plan. It is clear that child care and early learning investments are an integral part of our nation’s strategy for supporting a robust economy, lowering costs for families, and ensuring the long-term success of our children. With your leadership and support, we are ready to make these investments a reality.”
Through her leadership on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Shaheen has been a champion for funding to support child care and early education in the Senate. In the funding legislation for fiscal year (FY) 2022 signed into law last month, Shaheen worked to include more than $17 billion for key federal child care and early learning programs. The bill includes $6.2 billion for Child Care and Development Block Grants to states, an increase of $254 million over last year’s funding levels, as well as a nearly $289 million increase to Head Start, funding the program at $11 billion for FY 2022. Shaheen has led efforts in Congress to assist the child care sector, which has been among the hardest hit the pandemic. In the emergency COVID-19 relief legislation that was signed into law in December 2020 and the American Rescue Plan, Shaheen successfully included language that provided $50 billion dollars in urgently needed relief for child care providers. Specifically, New Hampshire has received more than $77 million dollars in supplemental child care funding through the American Rescue Plan.
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