Byron Dorgan: “I hope we perhaps might be able to see this amendment accepted before we go to votes tomorrow. The amendment I have…”

“I hope we perhaps might be able to see this amendment accepted before we go to votes tomorrow. The amendment I have offered on behalf of myself, Senator McCain, and Senator Inouye, restores the current set-aside for Indian child care funding. The current set-aside is 3 percent of the child care development block grant, which is now available to Indian tribes for child care. The welfare reform bill cuts that 3 percent down to 1 percent. The funds the Indian tribes are now able to access with the child care development block grant have been very important. They have allowed the tribes to successfully run a wide range of child care programs. In 1994, that set-aside helped more than 500 tribes provide child care. Last year, when the welfare reform bills passed both the House and the Senate, they retained the 3-percent set-aside for tribal child care programs. The conference bill inexplicably reduced that tribal allocation from 3 percent to 1 percent, the same level that is now contained in this reconciliation bill.”