Scott, Murray Reintroduce Child Care for Working Families Act

WASHINGTON – Today, Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), House Committee on Education and Workforce, and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined their colleagues in reintroducing the Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need.

“Our economy forces too many workers to choose between their jobs and caring for their children. Without investments in the care economy, jobs will remain unfilled because too many workers, especially women, will have to remain at home, and our economy will never reach its full potential,” said Ranking Member Scott. “Let’s be clear. The child care crisis cannot be solved without sustained public funding. The Child Care for Working Families Act makes the investments we need to turn our child care system around and meet the needs of children, parents, and child care workers. We must finally pass this bill and expand access to affordable, quality early learning opportunities, provide child care workers with the support they deserve, and give parents the freedom to pursue rewarding careers and contribute to our economic growth.”

“Right now, the cost of child care and other essentials is weighing millions of families down, but instead of tackling the affordability crisis, President Trump and Republicans have chosen to shower their billionaire donors with trillions of dollars in new tax breaks and kick 17 million Americans off their health care,” said Senator Murray. “It’s an outrageous betrayal, and instead of wasting billions on handouts for the richest people on earth, Democrats are going to keep fighting to help working families afford the basics and get ahead—including by passing my Child Care for Working Families Act to ensure every family can find and afford the child care they need. Just about everyone now recognizes how urgent an issue the child care crisis is—and how badly it hurts families and our economy—so I invite my Republican colleagues to join us to finally deliver the actual reform we need to address this crisis. This is an ambitious and commonsense plan to build child care centers, hire and retain more early childhood educators, and make sure every family can afford child care—with the typical family paying less than $15 a day. Not only that, we’d finally set this country on the path to universal Pre-K.  People actually want Congress to do this—don’t tell me we can’t afford to invest in child care and bring down costs for every family after Republicans just blew up the national debt to give tax breaks to billionaires who don’t need them.” 

As President Trump and Republicans in Congress choose to spend trillions on new tax cuts for billionaires and the biggest corporations, kick Americans off their health care, cut kids off from nutrition assistance, and raise costs on everyday essentials for working families, Democrats in Congress are continuing their push to help working people make ends meet—including by tackling the child care crisis. 

The cost of child care nationwide continues to rise—and far from helping tackle it, President Trump is exacerbating the affordability crisis. The average cost of child care is now $13,128—a 29 percent increase since 2020 that outpaces inflation. In 49 states and the District of Columbia, the average annual costs of child care for two children exceeds median rent—and in 41 states and the District of Columbia, the cost of care for one infant exceeds in-state university tuition. 

The crisis costs the U.S. economy over $100 billion each year. Nonetheless, President Trump has gutted oversight of and support for the federal child care office, held up child care funding to states, held up Head Start funding, and now created massive holes in states budgets with the “Big Ugly Law’s” cuts to Medicaid and SNAP—which may well force states to pare back on their own investments in child care. While two-thirds of Americans opposeRepublicans’ “Big, Ugly Law” over three-quarters of Americans support increased investment to help families afford child care.

The Child Care for Working Families Act would tackle the child care crisis head-on: ensuring families can afford the child care they need, expanding access to more high-quality options, stabilizing the child care sector, and helping ensure child care workers taking care of our nation’s kids are paid livable wages. The legislation will also dramatically expand access to pre-K, and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increased wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, which Scott and Murray have introduced every Congress since 2017, the typical family in America will pay no more than $15 a day for child care—with many families paying nothing at all—and no eligible family will pay more than 7 percent of their income on child care.

“Child care enables parents to work and kids to thrive. But right now, it's impossibly expensive,” said Democratic Whip Katherine Clark. “In the richest nation on earth, no parent should have to choose between groceries and child care. Under this bill, the typical family will pay no more than $15 a day for care. Ultimately, this bill is about giving every family a fair shot at the American Dream.  I want my Republican colleagues to look parents in the eye and explain how they can oppose that.”

“We are experiencing a child care crisis in this country. Child care—if folks can even find it—is pushing families into poverty, and Trump’s Big Ugly bill will only exacerbate the struggles our families are dealing with,” said Representative Summer Lee. “The Child Care for Working Families Act is a means to putting an end to this crisis. We have to make sure families have access to child care slots, that no family spends more than seven percent of their income on child care, and that all early childhood educators make a livable wage. I am grateful for Ranking Member Bobby Scott and Senator Patty Murray for their partnership on this bill, and I look forward to seeing it over the finish line.”

The Child Care for Working Families Act will:

• Make child care affordable for working families.
  • The typical family earning the state median income will pay about $15 a day for child care.
  • No working family will pay more than seven percent of their income on child care.
  • Families earning below 85 percent of state median income will pay nothing at all for child care.
  •  If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts, or Head Start agencies.
• Improve the quality and supply of child care for all children and expand families’ child care options by:
  • Addressing child care deserts by providing grants to help open new child care providers in underserved communities.
  • Providing grants to cover start-up and licensing costs to help establish new providers.
  • Increasing child care options for children who receive care during non-traditional hours.
  • Supporting child care for children who are dual-language learners, children who are experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care

• Support higher wages for child care workers.
  • Child care workers would be paid a living wage and achieve parity with elementary school teachers who have similar credentials and experience.
  • Child care subsidies would cover the cost of providing high-quality care.
• Dramatically expand access to high-quality pre-K.
  • States would receive funding to establish and expand a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
  • States must prioritize establishing and expanding universal local preschool programs within and across high-need communities.
  • If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts, or Head Start agencies.

• Better support Head Start programs by providing the funding necessary to offer full-day, full-year programming and increasing wages for Head Start workers.

In addition to Ranking Member Scott, the legislation is co-led in the House by Whip Clark (D-MA-05) and Representative Lee (D-PA-12) and is cosponsored Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Cleo Fields (LA-06), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), Bennie G. Thompson (MS-02), Jonathan L. Jackson (IL-01), Melanie A. Stansbury (NM-01), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Lucy McBath (GA-06), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Eric Swalwell (CA-14), Gwen Moore (WI-04), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), André Carson (IN-07), Kathy Castor (FL-14), George Latimer (NY-16), Katherine M. Clark (MA-05), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Maggie Goodlander (NH-02), Hillary J. Scholten (MI-03), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Robin L. Kelly (IL-02), Lauren Underwood (IL-14), Troy A. Carter (LA-02), Mark Pocan (WI-02), April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Ted W. Lieu (CA-36), Sarah McBride (DE-AL), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-03), Betty McCollum (MN-03), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Jennifer L. McClellan (VA-04), Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08), Sarah Elfreth (MD-03), Suzan K. DelBene (WA-01), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Morgan McGarvey (KY-03), Jill N. Tokuda (HI-02), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09), Seth Moulton (MA-06), William R. Keating (MA-09), Linda T. Sánchez (CA-38), Judy Chu (CA-28), Robert Menendez (NJ-08), Janice D. Schakowsky (IL-09), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24), Adam Smith (WA-09), Haley M. Stevens (MI-11), Greg Landsman (OH-01), Deborah K. Ross (NC-02), Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-03), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Dina Titus (NV-01), Brittany Pettersen (CO-07), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Seth Magaziner (RI-02), Terri A. Sewell (AL-07), Shontel M. Brown (OH-11), Sean Casten (IL-06), John Garamendi (CA-08), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Donald S. Beyer Jr. (VA-08), Sharice Davids (KS-03) and Gabe Amo (RI-01).

In addition to Vice Chair Murray and Senator Kaine, the legislation is co-led in the Senate by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) and cosponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

To read the bill text for the Child Care for Working Families Act, click here. 

To read the fact sheet on the Child Care for Working Families Act, click here. 

To read the section-by-section on the Child Care for Working Families Act, click here. 

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