Political Quotes

“Madam President, I wish to speak today in support of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014. First, I applaud the hard work of my colleagues on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee--Chairman Tom Harkin and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander. I also commend Senator Barbara Mikulski, my predecessor as chairman of the Subcommittee on Children and Families, and Senator Richard Burr for their commitment to improving the lives of children and their families as the sponsors of this important legislation. We can all agree that supporting our children should be a priority of the utmost importance, and I am proud of the bipartisan work done by my colleagues toward that end. The childcare and development block grant is an invaluable program that provides assistance to low-income working families. In North Carolina 78,000 children are served every month by CCDBG funding. These children and families deserve high quality childcare so that parents, like the ones I hear from in my State every day, can go to work with the knowledge that their children are safe and receiving high quality care. Last year, I visited Elm Street Day Care Center in Greensboro, NC, where I saw the importance of childcare, and development block grant funding firsthand. I saw how this program is helping working families in North Carolina and noted ways we could update this law to make it to work better and more efficiently.…”