Gluesenkamp Perez: “I think we all agree that childcare is underfunded. What we don't agree about here is the question of whether and how to…”

“I think we all agree that childcare is underfunded. What we don't agree about here is the question of whether and how to appropriately fund it and who is the one who decides where those dollars should go. I would say that in my case, in the case of the daycare worker I was speaking with, they would have had to install six more sinks to comply with the regulations as written. How much money do you think that takes? Do you think that is going to make daycare stretch further and provide daycare to more families? No, these rules were not written--they were not perfect. We should not treat legislation as if it is manifest from God in a perfect form on our notebooks. The reality is that legislation is more similar to doing the dishes where you do the dishes to do the dishes, to do the dishes. It is never done, and you have to keep going back to the people who are actually doing the implementation of it to understand if it is being implemented and if it is the point of the legislation. Nobody wanted us to spend these limited dollars installing a myriad of sinks. Maybe the plumbing industry did, but I doubt that. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”