Mike Levin: “first, let me say that, as usual, our friend from Minnesota is fighting for a cause that is an important one. I think he…”

“first, let me say that, as usual, our friend from Minnesota is fighting for a cause that is an important one. I think he is one of the leaders in this body of trying to make sure we have enough money for child care, child development, and it is important that leadership exist in this area. I commend him on that. The defense budget this year shows a greater than 10-percent increase in this area. So I think the Defense Department is right when they give us the facts and tell us that they have a program for significant improvement in child care, in part, by the way, because of the efforts of people in this body many years ago. They have a projected significant increase over these years, in part, may I say, because of our former colleague, Bill Cohen. Secretary Cohen was a leader in the effort to provide child care in this Senate. He is totally dedicated to it in the military. The DOD effort, the planned effort to significantly increase the amount of child care, is requiring them to go off base frequently in order to do that, to get facilities off the site of the facility itself, and to go into the neighboring communities to get child care. But they are on that course of action. They are doing that, and they should. But they have put in this budget this year approximately a 10-percent increase in funding for child care.”