Political Quotes

“the bill I send to the desk I send on behalf of myself and 24 of my colleagues whose names are included on the introduction of the legislation. The bill I have sent to the desk is called the Child Care and ACCESS bill, ``ACCESS'' standing for Affordable Child Care for Early Success and Security. As I said, I am pleased to be joined by 24 of my colleagues. There may be others in the coming days who care to join us in presenting what we believe is a comprehensive approach to dealing with an issue that I think all Americans--certainly I hope all in this Chamber--will recognize as a crisis: That is the crisis of child care. Almost on a daily basis, we read stories of children in child care settings who are left alone and then are discovered either with serious injury or worse. Many of them are left in certified and accredited child care centers. These stories highlight the critical importance of this issue. This is an issue that now affects 13 million children, the overwhelming majority of whom come from families where there is either a single parent or both parents must work in order to provide for the basic needs of their families. We have often felt in this country that we should not ask parents to make a choice between the job they need and the children they love, so child care has become a necessity. The question now is can we make it affordable for families? At a cost of $4,000 to $10,000 a year per child, is care accessible for parents who need it?”