Sheila Jackson Lee: “As a senior member of the Judiciary, Homeland, and Budget Committees, and Founding Chair of the Congressional Children's…”

“As a senior member of the Judiciary, Homeland, and Budget Committees, and Founding Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7327, the ``Child Care for Economic Recovery Act'', which expands the availability of quality child care, helps workers return to their jobs when it is safe, and enables America's economy to recover from the COVID-19 recession. The Child Care for Economic Recovery Act creates a new tax credit that helps employees access quality, affordable child care, and by expanding the employee retention tax credit, it incentivizes employers to keep child care workers on payroll. Further, this bill provides $850 million to states, the District of Columbia, and all U.S. territories to fill in the gaps in dependent care for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as invests $10 billion in infrastructure to improve child care safety. Madam Speaker, just last week, the United States reached a historic and unfortunate milestone with over 4,000,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. Today, there are over 4,400,000 cases nationwide and 151,000 deaths. In my home state of Texas, a current hotspot, there are over 413,000 cases and 6,500 deaths. At the county level, Harris County, which includes my district, has approximately 67,660 cases and 1,127 deaths.…”