Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, there is bipartisan consensus that our Nation's families, on behalf of our Nation's children, who are our future and our future leaders, must be able to access affordable, high quality childcare and other early learning opportunities to fulfill their potential and succeed in college and career and in life. In fact, a recent poll done by the First Five Years Fund found that 89 percent of voters, including 82 percent of Republicans, support making quality early childhood education more affordable for working families. Last year, I joined Ranking Member Bobby Scott and more than 120 of my colleagues to introduce the Child Care for Working Families Act. This bill would ensure universal access to quality early learning programs for all families making less than 150 percent of their State's median income. Today, the average annual cost of full-time, center-based childcare in the United States exceeds the average annual cost of in-state tuition. In Oregon and other places around the country, lower and middle- income families are forced to pay up to 30 percent of their annual income on childcare, with many of the lowest income families unable to afford care at all. The Child Care for Working Families Act is a bold solution to fix this national problem.…”