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Dear Friend,
Your senators need to hear from you! Members of Congress will be holding a hearing this week on child care -- so let's make it loud and clear that families need easier and more affordable access to child care, NOT harmful freezes!
Tell your member of Congress to act IMMEDIATELY to restore and protect child care funding.
What is happening?
The Trump administration drastically and abruptly undercut access to child care for over half a million children in five states. This disastrous action was prompted by a right-wing influencer’s skewed video trying to “prove” unfounded allegations of fraud by attempting to gain unauthorized access to a number of Minnesota child care centers. Now, Republicans in the Senate are further relying on this weaponized footage to hold a Child Care “Fraud” Hearing which, in reality, is less about proving fraud and more about advancing their anti-family, anti-immigrant, pro-billionaire agenda.
We all know that fraud is, of course, never okay, but empowering and relying on right-wing social media influencers to do the work of government investigations is not the answer to the national child care crisis. Nor do any parents want creepy men demanding entry into their children’s child care centers and taking videos of their children. [1]
Yet despite opposition from parents, federal child care funds were not only frozen in the entire state of Minnesota, but also in California, Colorado, Illinois, and New York — cutting more than $10 billion in child care and family programs completely unrelated to these allegations, throwing the fate of families’ budgets and livelihoods into chaos. [2] Though a federal judge has temporarily blocked the freeze, programs and families are mired in uncertainty when it comes to the immediate and long-term future of their access to care. [3]
Freezing critical child care funds for hundreds of thousands of children and targeting immigrants in our communities, who are a critical part of the care workforce, does not make the lives of families any easier or more affordable. In fact, it does the opposite – it makes access to quality, affordable child care much harder.
Urge Congress to immediately have child care funding restored and protected!
We won't be silent as child care continues to be under attack. Thank you for raising your voice!
With gratitude,
-Nadia, Lauren, Nina, Kristin, and the entire MomsRising and MamásConPoder Team
[1] “How the Minnesota fraud scandal could upend American child care” Vox.
[2] Trump’s Attack on Child Care Funding Undermines Early Educators, Shortchanges Children, and Increases Costs for Families
[3] Federal judge blocks Trump administration’s freeze of $10 billion in child-care funds
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Hi S,
URGENT: While families are still struggling with rising costs across the board, the Trump administration has disastrously halted funding to 5 “blue” states, ripping child care, planned cash assistance, and threatening the ability of families to go to work, to survive, and to thrive.
Wait – what is happening? Truly twilight zone times. The child care system is under attack by the Trump administration, which is using unfounded claims of fraud, from a viral YouTube video of a creepy man going to the doors of Somali child care providers asking to see and film the children in their care, to take actions that will make child care more expensive for families, make children less safe, and make it harder for child care providers to keep their doors open. [1]
Every dollar meant for children should be spent on children. In fact, the claims around child care fraud in Minnesota are years old and have been dealt with and oversight has been strengthened. [2] But this is not about fraud. This is a manufactured crisis that stokes fears and hatred, isolating us from each other, while Trump carries out a destructive immigration agenda that terrifies our immigrant neighbors and family, people of color, and entire communities, tears apart our systems of care, and undermines our families, businesses, and our economy.
Like we saw with DOGE, this is Trump’s playbook to a tee —it has nothing to do with fraud. Trump and his GOP allies want to slash and burn opportunities for families to thrive: They don’t care about opening avenues so families can afford child care or about helping the small businesses that keep our economy and communities working. And they are starting with the 5 “blue” states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York as yet another case of political retribution on the backs of hardworking families. [3]
Child care is not a “red” or “blue” issue – the simple fact is that ALL families need affordable child care and they need it now. And the Trump administration is charading around like they are protecting children while implementing policies that will rip child care away from hardworking families across the country.
While the billionaires stacked in the Trump administration might not be aware, it can only take one day without child care to lose your job. American families living in this House of Cards can’t afford to have the house come tumbling down when you rip child care away from our foundation. Cutting off or slowing child care funding for families will be catastrophic for children, families, providers, communities, and our economy.
Fraud should never be tolerated. Which is why local, state, and federal regulations are in place to ensure children and families are served with care, and that taxpayer dollars are well spent. And, we can all agree that children should always be protected.
Allowing unknown, ill-informed, and potentially dubious men to show up at the doorsteps of the very child care centers and homes that provide the safe and loving care for our youngest, demanding to “see” and video our children is not what any parent would define as protecting our children. In fact, that is wildly bizarre, risky, and potentially dangerous behavior. And it must stop. Every state has a process to ensure the dollars are spent appropriately as well as to investigate potential problems. We don’t punish a whole town when one person steals a candy bar. It makes no sense to punish thousands of hardworking families for unsubstantiated, baseless allegations against a few people.
Families understand more than anyone that the impacts of this reckless decision to halt child care funds will be swift and deeply harmful. Across the 5 states that Trump is freezing child care funding for, more than 500,000 children in over 44,000 programs could be impacted, including more than 300,000 children who rely on child care assistance and another 200,000 who do not directly receive assistance but who rely on child care centers that receive federal assistance. [4] The aggregate cost to families could total more than $400 million annually in lost parental earnings and other impacts. Businesses in those states (California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York) could lose another $119 million annually in reduced revenue from their workforce’s child care disruptions and increased hiring costs due to parent employees leaving or reducing their work hours because of the loss of child care.[5] And an unsurprising result could be more of a motherhood penalty: more than 156,000 moms of young children could be pushed out of work as a result of the loss of child care. [6] This is simply unacceptable.
Ask any parent or caregiver: Families already are in the middle of a care crisis. Child care costs more than rent, mortgage, and college tuition in far too many places across this country.
Tell Congress to fight for the hard working families in their districts and call the Department of Health and Human Services right now to restore funding and protect the child care families depend on.The vast majority of private sector workers still don’t have paid leave, and health care premiums are about to skyrocket for households across the country because President Trump and Republicans refused to act, and families can’t afford increases in child care too right now.
Our focus should be on making it easier and more affordable for families to get the child care they need. Instead, the Trump administration continues to ram an agenda that hurts people and makes it so much harder to live in this country of ours. That is a crisis and a tragedy of their making.
Together we are a powerful voice for children and families,
-Lauren, Nina, Kristin, and the entire MomsRising and and MamásConPoder Team
References
[1] “What to know about Nick Shirley, the YouTuber alleging day care fraud in Minnesota”. NPR.
[2] “How the Minnesota fraud scandal could upend American child care” Vox.
[3] “Trump freezes over $10 billion in childcare, family assistance funds to 5 US states”. Reuters.
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