John,

As the Senate works frantically to finish a tax and investment deal before the September 30th deadline―in order to pass the bill with a simple majority vote―there is one glaring omission. A critically needed investment in young, working families.

The pandemic has exacerbated the child care crisis across the country. Child care is either too expensive or not available. At the same time, child care workers are being paid poverty wages.

Jacklyn from Niagara Falls, New York, a real estate assistant and mother of three young children recently said, “Even if I could get a spot off the waitlists, there is no way we could afford it with its very high costs.”¹

As a result, Jacklyn’s husband assumes the child care responsibilities while Jacklyn works 9 hour days to support the family. It’s estimated that the child care crisis is resulting in $57 billion in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue each year!²

Write to your senators and demand that the tax and investment plan being negotiated right now include critical programs for young working families―including investments in child care!

One solution is a proposal by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) which would help at least 1 million children access child care and preschool and cap families’ child care expenses at 7% of a family’s earnings.

“I have spoken to so many moms and parents who had to quit their jobs entirely because they either couldn’t afford child care or they couldn’t find it, and to child care workers who are being paid poverty wages and can’t make ends meet—it’s clear, this is an urgent crisis and it’s putting a huge strain on our entire economy.” -Senator Patty Murray

According to the National Women’s Law Center, in February 2022, women were still short over 1.4 million net jobs compared to two years prior.³

Write to your senators and urge them to act with the urgency the child care crisis demands. Instead of more tax breaks for the rich and corporations, we need immediate investments in working families!

Thank you for fighting for investments in children, families and our future.

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ https://www.chn.org/voices/advocates-renew-push-for-affordable-available-child-care-as-part-of-reconciliation-package/
² https://strongnation.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/602/83bb2275-ce07-4d74-bcee-ff6178daf6bd.pdf?1547054862&inline
³ https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/FINAL-NWLC-Resilient-But-Not-Recovered-3.29.22.pdf