‘We Have To Take Very Bold Action To Save Our Nation’s Childcare System’: Patty Murray
During a Senate Health Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned witnesses about the high costs of childcare.
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Transcript
00:00want Americans to have including paid leave. Thank You Senator Murkowski. I'll
00:06turn next to Senator Murray. Chairman Casey, thank you so much for holding this
00:12hearing and really putting a spotlight on how companies are hiding behind
00:16inflation as they jack up prices beyond all reason and hide behind junk fees to
00:22charge consumers more and hiding behind those smaller sizes so families get less
00:27and pay more. That is why I'm a very proud co-sponsor of your bill, Senator
00:32Casey, a Shrinkflation Prevention Act. I think that's really important. You know
00:36when I talk to people back in Washington State, the grocery store, we're all seeing
00:40the same same thing. Companies shrinking sizes, hoping we won't notice, raising
00:45prices well beyond inflation and hoping we just won't ask them why. So we just
00:50can't stand for that. So I really appreciate your leadership on this. One
00:56of the things and Senator Murkowski talked about it, I know others have
00:59mentioned it, is the essential to this and I'm glad we're having this
01:03conversation about it is child care. It is a full-fledged crisis. Providers are
01:08really struggling to keep their doors open. Workers are struggling to make ends
01:13meet on poverty wages and parents are struggling everywhere to find any
01:17quality affordable options that work for their families. Certainly as Senator
01:22Murkowski talked about, having providers is absolutely essential, but I think one
01:28of the things we have to recognize is that corporate greed is actually adding
01:32fuel to this fire, making it harder for child care providers to stay in business
01:37and harder for families to fit child care in their budget. When you can't get
01:41affordable child care, you can't work. It's that simple and we can't work. That
01:46makes your family budget even tighter and it hurts our whole entire economy. So
01:52I really believe we have to take very bold action to save our nation's child
01:56care system and all the families who really depend on it. That's actually why
02:00I wrote the Child Care for Working Families Act and I'm going to keep
02:04pressing on it because what my bill does for working parents is that the typical
02:09family in America would pay about ten dollars per day for child care. No
02:14working family would pay more than seven percent of their income on child
02:19care. That would make a huge change for parents across the country. This is
02:24such a huge cost to families and it's one we can absolutely bring to this
02:29conversation and need to have at this conversation and it's how we build a
02:34fair economy that works for for families where child care is affordable and
02:38companies don't profiteer off inflation and wealthy pay their fair share and
02:43that's I think what all of us are working to move towards. Let me go
02:49right to child care. In my home state of Washington, couples pay on average 15% of
02:55their income on child care. Single parents pay almost 30%. Programs like
03:02Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start are really a lifeline for
03:05working parents and it's why I was very proud in the last
03:10appropriations bill to secure a billion dollar increase for child care
03:14initiatives but as I said the child care for working families focuses on all of
03:19it and one of the things we do is a 7% cap on the cost of child care. Dr. Gee,
03:25can you comment on what that would mean for families? A cap on the cost of child
03:32care is crucial to making it affordable for families. To expand on what I said
03:36earlier, I think one of the problems with the cost of child care is that
03:41unlike other major purchases in life, higher ed tuition, home mortgages, car
03:47payments, there's no good option for financing that upfront cost of child
03:51care. Just to underscore how child care costs relative to other things folks
03:57might encounter in life, in 32 states and here in Washington DC, the cost of child
04:02care exceeds in-state college tuition. This is also a cost that is actually
04:08decreasing over child's life. The most labor-intensive period of child care is
04:13for infants and toddlers but that coincides, that's the opposite of
04:17the trajectory of parental earnings that we would expect to see where people tend
04:21to get promoted and earn more over their lifetimes which means that families are
04:24facing a very high cost early in that life cycle. So I think that this
04:29is a classic example of where markets are going to fail us because we
04:35can't expect families to invest in their children and in the economy
04:40without some support and some ability to smooth those costs over the life cycle.
04:44I would also say that investing in child care is important for the
04:50economy overall. It enables parents, particularly women, to participate in the
04:54labor force which is important for families' overall economic security and
04:59for employers being able to hire the workers they need. Thank you and Ms.
05:05Swiggle, I see by your resume that you are the mom of 11 children. Talk to us
05:10about what child care means to you. So child care for us is not an option. I
05:16have to stay home with the children while my husband goes out and work and
05:20on the flip side of things, being a foster parent, you can see the divide of
05:25parents that are able to work. You either qualify for benefits for child
05:29care or you don't and if you don't, you struggle for the rest of that child's
05:35life until they get to school and if you're lucky enough to be in a public
05:39school that will have affordable before care and after care. It's just not even
05:45an option for most families including my family which I would consider us upper
05:51middle class and it's not an option. It's just not even abstainable.
05:57I know you feel strongly about this as to we have to deal with this issue so I
06:01appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Murray. We'll do a second
06:05round of questions starting now. We may have other members that come in for the
06:11first round but I wanted to start with Dr. Gee, as you know,