Al Franken: “Thank you. Amendment No. 2822 I rise in strong support of the child care development and block grant, or CCDBG, and to…”

“Thank you. Amendment No. 2822 I rise in strong support of the child care development and block grant, or CCDBG, and to urge my colleagues to support the amendment Senator Murkowski and I put forward. Our amendment would help strengthen CCDBG by making sure we are addressing some of our Nation's communities that will benefit most from it, the people who are members of tribes or tribal organizations all over this Nation. American Indians experience exceptionally high unemployment levels compared with the rest of the Nation. Furthermore, American Indian children and youth experience some of the poorest educational outcomes in America. These are exactly the sort of challenges CCDBG is designed to address. Our amendment would lift the current ceiling on tribal childcare funding so CCDBG can go to where the funds are needed most. This would enable more funds to flow to tribes and tribal organizations but without reducing the amount that goes to States. The amendment specifies that the amount of CCDBG funds reserved for tribes only rises if the overall funding level for CCDBG goes above its current levels. I thank our cosponsors, Senators Murray, Thune, Hirono, Baldwin, and Heitkamp, for their support of this amendment. I thank Senators Harkin and Alexander and Senators Mikulski and Burr for working together to bring this bill to the floor. Thank you very much. I would yield for my colleague from North Carolina. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.”