Dan Coats: “we all want to improve quality care for child care. We spend nearly $1 billion now doing that. As chairman of the…”

“we all want to improve quality care for child care. We spend nearly $1 billion now doing that. As chairman of the Children and Family Subcommittee I am committed to that. I commend Senator Jeffords, Senator Dodd, and others for work in that area. The reason I oppose this particular amendment is, first of all, because it is an amorphous amendment. It brings a number of things together. There is one in here we tried to work out. I think we ought to oppose it, take it back to committee, bring it through, and bring a true quality child care amendment forward. This forces grandparents, neighbors, and family day-care providers who already comply with State child care laws to meet now an additional standard, certified by a State-recognized agency or entity to submit to additional monitoring in order to have the care that they provide qualify for this additional tax credit. We should not provide a preference tax credit for those who provide care outside the State certification. There are mothers and neighbors and relatives who do that who provide what they think is quality care and, more important, what the mothers and parents of children think is quality care.”