▶ 0:05:56The subcommittee on early childhood, elementary, and secondary education will come to order. I note that a quorum is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to call a recess at any time. Over the summer, this subcommittee held a hearing on why child care is essential to helping working parents thrive and local economies grow. We focused on the child care and development block grant, the primary federal program supporting child care programs for lowincome working families.
▶ 0:06:25This block grant exists to help working parents access affordable child care so they can stay in the workforce and pursue economic opportunities. At that hearing, we heard from witnesses about the importance of preserving parental choice while giving value and dignity to working parents. But the child care block grant reaches only a small fraction of families who need care.
▶ 0:06:48The US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families reports that the block grant serves roughly 1.5 million children. Meanwhile, the National Center for Education Statistics estimates there are about 12.6 million children who have non-parental care arrangements during the week. That gap makes clear that alongside federal and state spending, private sector employers have an important role to play in addressing the cost and availability of child care for the national workforce.
▶ 0:07:18We also examine the high cost of child care. The national average is $13,128 annually. And while recent unprecedented federal spending in the child care sector may have propped up providers for a short time, it has not solved the long-term challenges of affordability for families or sustainability for providers. That is why we heard strong agreement that meaningful progress requires a public private approach.
▶ 0:07:48Employer engagement is a critical leg in the three-part support system holding up our childare market. Families, government, and employers each play a role. Today, we'll hear from three companies whose innovation is delivering real results, helping families, strengthening their workforce, and supporting the communities where they operate. The Childare Block Grant and private sector innovation should be partners in meeting the child care needs of America's workforce.
▶ 0:08:17The block grant helps ensure a supply of highquality licensed providers that families can access. Employer investment can strengthen the stability of those providers and ease child care pressures across communities. We will discuss both of those dynamics today. At the same time, protecting the integrity of child care funding is essential because families depend on it.
▶ 0:08:39When bad actors exploit the system, scarce resources are diverted away from the parents and childrens these children these programs are meant to serve. The childcare block grant while vital cannot shoulder the full burden of America's child care needs alone. It is part of a broader system that thrives when public funds are safeguarded and private innovation steps in to fill the gaps.
▶ 0:09:04Employers who invest in child care are demonstrating what long-term commitment can look like. Not because government funding is guaranteed forever, but because supporting child care strengthens their work workforce, improves productivity, and fuels local economic growth. Their examples show what is possible when innovation and responsibility meet, and why we should not allow fraud or mismanagement to undermine solutions that working families urgently need. And with that, I'll turn to the ranking member for an opening statement.
▶ 0:09:35Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today. This hearing is about an issue that's critical. Critical for children, for families, for employers, and for the economy. Too many families are struggling with high costs for groceries, utilities, healthcare. Child care is a necessity for millions of American families. And in many places, including my home state of Oregon, the cost for child care, when families can find it, can be as much as rent or mortgage payments.
▶ 0:10:01And although I welcome the focus on innovative approaches by private sector employers, I also want to be clear from the outset that employers alone are not solving Americans America's childare crisis as the title of this hearing suggests playing a part but not solving. Most employer-led solutions for child care come in the form of tax credits for families to offset the cost of care. In Oregon, for example, businesses can receive a state tax credit for dependent care assistance to employees.
▶ 0:10:30Employer engagement plays an important role, but as Miss Glover says in her testimony, Glover, Glover, Gro, Grover, sorry, Miss Grover says in her testimony, child care is not a perk. It is workforce investment. And I agree and submit that we need a comprehensive solution to build and strengthen that infrastructure. Access to affordable, highquality child care is a is an essential part of a functioning economy. Yet, in many communities, childare simply does not exist in sufficient supply.
▶ 0:10:58And as a direct result of that scarcity and unaffordability, our economy loses an estimated $122 billion in earnings, productivity, and revenue every year. This is not a personal failure on the part of parents or providers. It is a policy failure. When parents cannot find care, they reduce their hours, they turn down promotions, or they leave the workforce entirely. Women, particularly women of color, are disproportionately pushed out of the workforce because of challenges finding and paying for child care.
▶ 0:11:28Employers lose experienced workers. Small businesses lose customers. Families have less income and children miss out on the benefits of a stable, highquality early learning environment that we know sets them up for lifelong success. At the same time, child care workers who do some of the most important work in our society are often paid poverty wages. Many need to rely on public assistance to survive and many do not have health care benefits. Without meaningful federal investment, child care costs will continue to rise for families.
▶ 0:11:59Wages will remain unsustainably low for childare workers. This continues to be an untenable system that, as Miss Matsui points out in her testimony, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen correctly identified as a textbook example of a broken market. And it's a system that cannot be remedied solely with a market solution. This issue is especially acute in Oregon where hurdles are both supply and affordability. And I speak with Oregonians, often women, who are limited by the lack of access to child care.
▶ 0:12:28I had a town hall meeting in Klaskkin, Iowa. It's a very small rural town in Oregon. Head Start is the only child care available in the entire city. And in rural areas like on the Oregon coast, lack of options for child care limits economic growth. Families have to turn down jobs when they can't find or afford child care. And I I know that's the case in many places across the country. And some suggest that employers can step in and fill this gap.
▶ 0:12:54And I always look for creative ways to solve problems, but we have to be honest about the limits of this approach. Most business owners are focused on keeping their doors open and their workers employed in increasingly unaffordable economy. I look forward to the testimony from the business owners here today. Uh but oftentimes businesses are focused focused on navigating higher costs, supply chain disruptions, economic uncertainty.
▶ 0:13:16And again, though I appreciate the witnesses here today for their uh work and their efforts, expecting employers, especially small and midsize businesses, to take on all of child care is not always realistic. Many business owners just don't have the bandwidth. Congress should not expect them to solve a nationwide child care crisis. It is a public good. Again, infrastructure shifting responsibility away from policymakers and onto families and businesses doesn't remove the problem.
▶ 0:13:43It often pushes it to the people less less able to bear the cost. And meanwhile, policies proposed by congressional Republicans and the actions of the Trump administration have contributed to making raising a child even further out of reach. Last week, the Trump administration released a proposed rule that rescends a 2024 childare and development fund policy that both capped the cost of child care and increased child care options for families.
▶ 0:14:08Families are continually being squeezed from all sides and now some of the already limited federal support is again threatened. I also expect that today's discussion may touch on alleged fraud within the child care system and let me say this, any instance of fraud is unacceptable and should be addressed.
▶ 0:14:25However, this administration this administration is using alleged fraud as an excuse to abruptly yank funds from states which affects all of the students and children involved without thoroughly investigating situations. The solution is not to take child care resources away from working families. The solution is to get it right. What we could and should do is pass the Childare for Working Families Act, which would cap costs for families, expand access to highquality care, and invest in the childare workforce.
▶ 0:14:56If we're serious about supporting families, strengthening the workforce, and growing the economy, we must treat child care as the essential infrastructure it is. So, I look forward to today's discussion and look forward to working towards solutions that meet the scale of this challenge. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. Pursuant to committee rule 8C, all members who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the committee clerk electronically in Microsoft Word format by 5:00 p.m. 14 days after this hearing and without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 14 days.
▶ 0:15:25To allow such statements and other extraneous material noted during the hearing to be submitted for the official hearing record. I will now introduce our witnesses. Our first witness is Mr. Dr. Hayden Paulino Hensley, the president and co-founder of Red Rooster Coffee Company from Floyd, Virginia. Our second witness is Ms. Alex Grover, the CEO at I2M from Mountaintop, Pennsylvania. Our third witness is Miss Amy K.
▶ 0:15:51Matsui, the vice president for childare and income security at the National Women's Law Center here in DC. And our fourth witness is Miss Marylu Burke Alphonso, the COO of Bright Horizons from Newton, Massachusetts. We thank the witnesses for being here today and we look forward to your testimony. Pursuant to committee rules, I would ask you each limit your oral presentation to a three-minute summary of your written statement. As committee members have many questions for you. The clock will countdown from 3 minutes.
▶ 0:16:17However, pursuant to committee rule 8D and committee practice, we will not cut off your testimony until you reach the five minute mark. I would also like to remind the witnesses to be aware of your responsibility to provide accurate information to the subcommittee. I'll first recognize Mr. Peno Paul Palsino Hensley for your testimony.
▶ 0:16:39Chairman Kylie, ranking member Bonamichi, and members of the committee. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on a subject that touches so many of us. I'd like to open by clarifying that I am not a child care policy expert. I'm a small business owner and the parent of two children. My wife Rose and I are the co-owners of Red Rooster Coffee in Floyd, Virginia.
▶ 0:17:00and I'm here to describe how we became almost by accident child care providers for our employees in 2018 when we are expecting our second child. Rose and I realized that the fragile patchwork of babysitting that allowed us and our employees to work was close to breaking down. Floyd is extremely rural and at the time the only daycare had a long wait list and costs that approached nearly half some of our employees annual wages. We had been paying family members to care for our son and our employees kids in a small space inside our building.
▶ 0:17:31Faced with the reality that we had built an informal babysitting ring inside a manufacturing facility, we decided to become legal. We hired a director with experience in licensing and within months we opened Yellow Hen Child Care. It started with 10 children. It eventually served 24 at its peak including our son and daughter. We initially set the price at $1 an hour because we believed child care for our employees should not be cost prohibitive.
▶ 0:17:59This meant our coffee business subsidized the program at nearly $90,000 a year. It was financially difficult, but the impact was enormous. In our coffee roasting business, 14 of our current 24 employees have used Yellowhead. Most of them have stayed with us for more than five years, many for more than a decade.
▶ 0:18:17In short, our on-site childare program created loyalty, stability, and a deep sense of We also made it a priority to pay our child care staff among the highest wages for providers in the county because caring for children is skilled, demanding work. As a result, most of our caregivers stayed for years, providing continuity and strong relationships for the families. As our workforce aged and our needs shifted, we have adapted. Yellowhen now operates as an after-school holiday and summer program.
▶ 0:18:48In addition, we recently created a family financial assistance program that allows employees to receive either child care reimbursements or employer funded college savings. I want to close with one personal story. India Dietro began working for us at age 15. At 21, she became a single mother and struggled deeply with the need to return to work and the difficulty of finding affordable care for her daughter. Yellow Hen made it possible for her to return to her job in our cafe while while her child was professionally cared for only steps away.
▶ 0:19:19Today she is 30 years old, owns 10% of our cafe, and is the managing partner in that company. Her daughter, now nine, still attends Yellow Hen every day after school, every school holiday, and during the summer months. That is what accessible child care makes possible, not just for families, but for businesses, communities, and the American workforce. Thank you.
▶ 0:19:44Thank you very much. I'll next recognize Miss Grover for your testimony.
▶ 0:19:55Chairman Kylie, Ranking Member Bonamichi, and members of the subcommittee. [clears throat] Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Alex Grover and I am CEO of I2M, a United States manufacturer headquartered in northeastern Pennsylvania. We manufacture and extrude flexible polymer films largely for commercial and residential applications.
▶ 0:20:17We operate around the clock and we compete globally and every day we are committed to demonstrating that American manufacturing is not only alive, it is Manufacturing in the United States today faces one significant and exciting opportunity, a renaissance if you will. Products are being reshored. Tariffs have leveled the playing field.
▶ 0:20:45But the challenge becomes if we cannot staff our plants. None of this matters. Manufacturing cannot be automated out of every challenge. It relies on people. People who are willing every day to come in on a shift, on time, consistently, and deliver products with enthusiasm, with technical skill, and with a lot of Here's the other reality.
▶ 0:21:14Many of those people are parents. I have the privilege of working alongside of them, and I can tell you that the manufacturing workforce in this country is some of the most talented and highly capable individuals out there. But in order for them to build the careers that they need, they also need support and help through child care I don't just have the privilege of working alongside of them. I am also one of them.
▶ 0:21:40As the mother of a five-month-old, I completely understand that I would not be here testifying in front of you today if I did not have access to reliable, highquality child care. And so for these reasons at I2M child care is a business decision. It is a strategic impetus for us to ensure continuity amongst our workforce. Our current child care program launched in 2022 as it is today.
▶ 0:22:08We contract with reserve child care and we do everything we can to make the process as simple as possible. We use a highquality local provider. we offset the cost significantly in order to ensure that it's affordable and we actually ensure that the hours are extended. Um because one of the things that we learned very early on in the process is that today's child care is largely designed for people who work a 9 to5 and not a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift.
▶ 0:22:37Participation is voluntary, but the results and impact that we see on our families is consistent. The results of addressing this issue has been clear. Retention among amongst our workforce who are part of this program is nearly 100%. Call offs which are a huge challenge in a 247 manufacturing business are significantly reduced amongst that cohort and that helps us with production stability. It helps us deliver for our customers and it ensures safety.
▶ 0:23:05One example that illustrates this, an I2M team member who enrolled his children in our program. So previously his wife stayed home because the cost of high-quality child care made it irrational for her to work. With affordable, reliable care, she re-entered the workforce and ultimately joined I2M herself as a material handler.
▶ 0:23:25So now, not only does that benefit I2M because we're able to have reliable staff, it is one household with higher income, improved stability, and two people building careers in American That is not social policy. That is capitalism working the way that it So this is why incentives matter and alignment of incentives matter.
▶ 0:23:49Pennsylvania's employer child care tax credits a clear signal, but the additional tax credits through 45F are a huge benefit to companies like I2M and other manufacturers. These are the ones and these are the incentives that exist that say to employers, let's figure out a way to make sure that private business can do what it is designed to do, solve complex problems efficiently.
▶ 0:24:13My goal here is to ensure that other manufacturers know that this is possible, that the resources exist, and that from a business standpoint, this makes sense to do. Because in reality, this is how we grow American manufacturing. This is how we stay competitive. And this is how private enterprise helps solve real problems in a way that lasts. Thank you. I look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:24:38Thank you very much. I'll next recognize Ms. Matsui for your testimony.
▶ 0:24:42Chairman Kylie, Ranking Member Bonamichi, and other distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today's hearing. Accessible, affordable, high-quality child care is essential for children, families, and our economy. In 2023, over 11 million children under age 15 spent time in paid child care settings. We know that quality child care supports children's early development. Childare also enables parents to work, look for work, or participate in education or training.
▶ 0:25:12Childare especially benefits women's labor force participation, boosting their incomes and economic security. It ensures a dependable, productive workforce for employers. Indeed, the million plus workers in the child care sector make work across our entire economy possible. Unfortunately, as former Treasury Secretary Jan Yellen observed, child care is a textbook example of a broken market.
▶ 0:25:36Parents in every state working in every economic quarter are struggling to pay for child care, assuming they can even find care that meets their family's needs. And meanwhile, the early educators who care for our youngest children are being paid poverty level wages. Parents cannot afford to pay more and early educators certainly cannot afford to be paid less. But the child care system we have today fails to meet families and workers needs. And this hurts all of us.
▶ 0:26:03As a result of the lack of affordable, reliable child care, the United States is losing an estimated $122 billion in earnings, productivity, and revenues each year. Our system is clearly broken, which begs the question, what is needed to fix it? The answer is robust public investments.
▶ 0:26:22While all of us, parents, employers, and communities have a stake in a better child care system, small peacemeal policies without public investment will not get the system to where it needs to be. For example, even if some employers can help their own workers access child care, employer-based policies can't increase child care supply in communities to the scale of need.
▶ 0:26:44Even if some employers are able to lower child care costs for their own workers, employer provided benefits don't increase wages for early educators across communities and states. And incentives designed to encourage employers to provide child care benefits have largely proven ineffected over more than two decades. For example, over fewer than 1% of corporate tax returns claim federal employer provided childare tax credits.
▶ 0:27:11The companies that do claim these credits are overwhelmingly large corporations that can already afford to offer childare benefits. Recent expansions to the employer provided child care tax credit and HR1 didn't fix the the credit's fundamental shortcomings. In fact, on the whole, HR1 made the child care crisis worse for early educators and the families who struggle the most to afford childare with its historic cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.
▶ 0:27:38The bottom line is that we cannot tax credit our way out of a broken child care system. We cannot expect largecale results from small-scale solutions. Families and early educators need and deserve more. The proposed $85 million increase in childare and Head Start funding in the Senate Labor HHS appropriations bill would be a step in the right direction. This funding would help states expand child care access, lower costs, and support early educators.
▶ 0:28:07But these increases are also not enough. The child care crisis in this country is enormous and we need public investments at a scale to match. For example, comprehensive child care legislation introduced by committee ranking member Bobby Scott and Senator Patty Murray would tackle the child care crisis headon. The Child Care for Working Families Act would ensure families can afford child care, expand access to highquality options, stabilize the child care sector, and help ensure that childare workers are paid a livable wage.
▶ 0:28:38Voters support bold child care solutions. Polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree that we should be investing in child care just as we invest in other critical infrastructure. An overwhelming majority also believes that childare should be considered a public good, just like public education and public libraries. We should trust families when they tell us what they need. Our children, early educators, and parents, especially moms, deserve real solutions and they deserve them now.
▶ 0:29:07Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to your
▶ 0:29:12Thank you very much. And uh Miss Burke Gavonso, you're recognized for your
▶ 0:29:17Good morning, Chairman Kylie. Ranking Member Bonomichi and distinguished members, I am honored to be invited to testify at this hearing. Thank you for the opportunity to address a critical issue at the intersection of family well-being and economic strength, which is child care access. This issue is central to my life's work.
▶ 0:29:42In addition to working every day with thousands of some of the most talented early educators, I also know firsthand the difference they can make in a family's life. My own mother was a single mother of four who had to support our family after my father passed away. She was a Boston public school teacher and to this day I don't know how she did it without the supports that I had. My two daughters are now at the other end of their formal education journeys.
▶ 0:30:13But from the time they were babies until they entered elementary school, I was a working mother who relied heavily every day on Bright Horizon's Child Care. My daughter's teachers and their centers were an integral part of our support network and helped shape my girls into the young women they are today.
▶ 0:30:34I've been fortunate enough to have spent the past 31 years working for Bright Horizons, advocating for early educators and reliable quality child care on behalf of other parents working outside the home. Bright Horizons was founded in 1986, partnering with companies to provide on-site child care solutions for their employees.
▶ 0:30:59Just as dual earner households increasingly became more the norm, our employeebacked solutions include on or nearsight child care centers as well as backup benefits to cover gaps in regular child care Over the past 40 years, we have worked side by side with employer partners to deliver on our founding mission, demonstrating the community and business value of supporting working parents
▶ 0:31:30and at the same time investing in our caregiving workforce with education, career development, and industry-leading pay and benefits that professionalize the field of early education. For millions of families, child care is essential for parents to work.
▶ 0:31:51Yet, across the country, in urban and rural communities, for nurses, first responders, line workers, office workers alike, quality quality care remains out of reach. In our most recent study, the Modern Family Index, 80% of working parents said that the American workforce still hasn't adjusted to reflect the care needs of modern families.
▶ 0:32:22And 67% of working parents feel forced to choose between focusing on their career or taking care of their family. I believe employers can help close that Today, Bright Horizons has partnered with nearly 1,400 employers spanning industries as diverse as agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, US military, government, and tech.
▶ 0:32:51We operate programs for employers in every state represented by this subcommittee and directly in five of your districts. We work closely with our employer clients to create center-based solutions that work for their specific workforce, catering operations to hours, to locations, and age groupings that work for their employees.
▶ 0:33:19Across these diverse partnerships, the results are consistent. When employers invest in care solution, absenteeism decreases, productivity increases, and talent retention improves. And educating children at the early age taps into a critical window of brain development, helping to cultivate the next generation of workers and citizens.
▶ 0:33:49At Bright Horizons, we believe supporting working parents is just is not just the right thing to do. It is an economic and social imperative. And private partnerships alongside public investments play a vital role in making child care more affordable and accessible for all American families. That's why today's conversation is so important. Thank you and I look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:34:20Thank you very much to all our witnesses for the uh outstanding testimony. Under committee rule nine, we'll now question the witnesses under the five-minute rule. And I'll first recognize the uh representative from Ohio, Mr. Rouley, uh for five minutes.
▶ 0:34:37Sorry about that. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, Miss Grover. I want to begin with a statistic. According to HHS, hourly price for childhood service has doubled since 1995. Child care costs rose faster than housing, transportation, and groceries over the last three decades. There's a lot of talk in Minnesota about the fraud that was happening in day daycare centers. We've seen a lot of that fraud in Ohio and Columbus with our daycare centers.
▶ 0:35:06So that starts a contra uh conversation in Ohio about public dayare versus private daycare which is why I think I'm addressing you right now. You talk about your company is providing child care for your employees and I think a lot of this could be done with tax breaks. Um employee retention to me is absolutely everything.
▶ 0:35:28Um, you know, our family has a business and so I used to do HR and now I sat in on HR with my brother and the questions that employees are asking about when they are interviewing are different than they were 10 years ago and it almost feels like the employer now is being interviewed by the employee because things have changed since the 1990s.
▶ 0:35:49In the 1990s when I was in college, it was a market that was provided by the employer because the employer was in the driver's seat. But now the employer is not in the driver's seat. It is the employee that is in the driver's seat because there are many jobs available for them. We don't have the workforce that America needs to provide to continue this economical boom that we're trying to occur.
▶ 0:36:12Um, so I have employees when they're asking to be uh interviewed that are talking about how many days off do you have? What kind of uh time can I have off weekends? Do I know any people that work here? Are there is it fun to work here? Uh, can I bring my kid to work? So that's where you hit pause. Can I bring my kid to work?
▶ 0:36:33So, if you have a private provided daycare center, now your company is much more desirable to work at and it is a golden piece of the puzzle that you could actually get the best workforce that you could imagine. And not only that, but mom and dad are going to be on the campus where their kid is going to be at daycare. So, the accessibility to your child if there's a problem is going to be absolutely amazing. I think the workforce in America is evolving every single day. And this is such an interesting part of the puzzle.
▶ 0:37:00How do we address privately dayc carees for our employees? And how could Congress help you with uh incentivizing companies to provide more daycare? Because you know, companies are always looking at overhead and how much overhead just boggles down your net and your gross profit. But if you don't have the workforce when you need the workforce, you're in big trouble. So with that, uh, Miss Grover, I'll pull back and I'll let you continue on that.
▶ 0:37:28Sure. Thank you. Um, so just just to be clear in terms of our program, um, we work with a uh off-site daycare center and provide uh reduced um, uh, reduced hourly rates, reduced daily rates. Um, however, it's still a benefit. Um, and certainly something we hear quite a bit of during the interview process. Um, I I think your question is, you know, what should Congress do right now, right? If we had a wish list, what do could we as a business do? And and to me, you know, there are a couple of different things.
▶ 0:37:58I I think the first is preserve and strengthen employer focused tax credits. Um so the the uh section 45F employer um uh child care contribution tax credit is a huge incentive to businesses like mine who want to be able to expand and grow this program because we've seen the success of what it can be at this entry level. And so certainly the expansion of those types of tax credits uh is key.
▶ 0:38:24Um, I think keeping the definitions flexible so private business can be creative and go to work in terms of what solution is going to be most appropriate for that business and for that group of employees. Could it be on-site? Could it be um uh local at um at a more local level? Could it be a wide variety of different child carees? I think there's a um there isn't a one-sizefits-all approach to child care.
▶ 0:38:50Um but employers who really understand their workforce, understand the demographics and understand the needs are very well suited to help define that. Um a and then lastly, I think avoiding complexity that creates a barrier to participation, ensuring that the execution of these tax credits is straightforward.
▶ 0:39:10that businesses can understand what the playbook is in order to create a child care program, leverage this as a benefit, and in turn recruit and retain the best possible talent, especially in the manufacturing industry where, as you so accurately stated, it's incredibly competitive to find really highly capable, skilled lump labor. Um, and and so in general, uh, that's kind of the picture of what we'd look for.
▶ 0:39:37Thank you, Miss Glover. I uh yield my
▶ 0:39:40Uh the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Scott, is recognized.
▶ 0:39:45Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the ranking subcommittee chair for yielding. Um [clears throat] Matsui, the Trump administration has announced plans to roll back some Biden era regulations, the payment cap of 7% and enrollmentbased, not attendancebased, payments. Can you highlight how this new regulation, how the old regulation helped families and how the repeal will hurt families?
▶ 0:40:15Thank you for the question, ranking member. The rule that you're describing, as you noted, capped child care co-ayments for families at 7% of their income. And as a result, the elimination of this part of the rule really opens the door to families having to pay more and having more of a burden for child care costs than they already face. In addition, the part of the rule which is proposed to being eliminated also um got rid of um enrollmentbased payments for providers.
▶ 0:40:46I just want to observe that enrollment basis payment practices are really how the private child care market operates. When parents enter into contracts with child care providers, um they providers need a very stable form and predictable form of payment because they're operating on very slim margins.
▶ 0:41:06Um they need to be able to pay rent and mortgage to make payroll and having a enrollment-based payment plan um allows them to know what their payments are in advance and enables them to stay keep their [music] doors open. In fact, this provides more options for parents, makes it easier for providers to keep their doors open, and the rule really reflected what the private market already does.
▶ 0:41:33Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous consent that an press release from the National Women's Law Center entitled Trump administration rule raises child care costs amid escalating attacks on early educators and families. Been in the record. Thank you. Um you mentioned the um child care for working families act. Can that has investments in workforce and capacity.
▶ 0:41:59Can you tell me some um examples of those kinds of
▶ 0:42:05Thank you ranking member and thank you for your leadership in introducing the child care for working families act. One very specific aspect of the bill to note is that the bill would make additional investments in prek programs and also in Head Start programs to ensure that child care services that are full day, full year are available to more families.
▶ 0:42:26And in fact, this would significantly increase child care supply and make sure that parents have options that meet their famil family's needs that are available to them that are affordable for them because of the provisions of the legislation. These are really elements of the solution to ensure that we have a child care system that works for families no matter where they live, no matter who they work for, so that their children are cared for and have their development supported by talented and well-compensated early educators.
▶ 0:42:57Thank you. Now, most people get their health care through as a benefit from their employer. And what's wrong with relying on employers to provide child care as a employed employmentbased
▶ 0:43:12Employers who recognize how important child care is for their workers for a stable workforce significantly speaks to the benefit of child care and how it helps all of us, helps grow the economy and ex really supports work across all sectors. That being said, there are some reasons that we shouldn't be asking everyone to rely on child care through their employers. It's an entirely voluntary benefit.
▶ 0:43:40So, if employers needs shift or their costs are unmanageable, they may close they may eliminate the benefit and that leaves employees in the lurch. At the same time, we may also be locking employees into jobs when they could be looking for other opportunities, and we certainly don't want that as well. Employees may also have different needs for their children. They may want their children to be cared for in different kinds of child care settings than their employers offer.
▶ 0:44:10And in many cases, unlike the witnesses here today, child care costs are still excessive for workers even when their employees their employers subsidize them. So it's definitely part of the solution, but without robust public investments, it can't solve the full problems in the child care system.
▶ 0:44:29Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
▶ 0:44:32I'll now recognize uh myself for five minutes. I think we can uh all agree that the uh growing cost of child care is a a major issue and when we talk about affordability which is uh the cost of living uh which is such a challenge for so many families across the country right now particularly in my state uh of California uh the cost of child care is a big part of that problem.
▶ 0:44:55Just to give you uh an example from my district, the average cost of childare as of 2024 uh for a center-based care for an infant was $19,968. In home care for an infant, $15,599. Uh for toddlers, uh not a whole lot better. Centerbased care, $12,913, Uh similar numbers uh for for preschool aged uh children.
▶ 0:45:21uh it's gotten to the point where for uh your typical family they might spend anywhere from 9 to 16% of their median income on childare for one child. Uh so this is is a major hardship and you know it's important to note that the numbers the cost has increased substantially from 2022 to 2024 uh for inhome care or for in center care for infant for example it rose $2,000 a year just in that two-year uh time period.
▶ 0:45:47And this is despite the fact that we had unprecedented uh federal investment and spending during those years, $52.5 billion in new spending uh through these COVID era uh related programs. So we're very supportive here of the childhood uh the childcare development uh block grant. We held a whole prior hearing on that. One of the uh virtues of that program is that it usually comes in the form of a voucher. So it puts choice and power in the hands of parent as to the option that's right for them.
▶ 0:46:16Uh but there are limits to the program because we're talking about you know fewer than 10% uh of kids who need child care uh are uh you know participate through that program. Uh and then there are also issues of scale uh issues of access in different types of communities uh issues as as far as the sort of tailored solutions that many families need.
▶ 0:46:36So, we're holding this hearing today to talk about how we can use the policy levers we have here to catalyze uh the provision of child care services on a larger scale and in a way that uh you know fits the needs of individual families. And I think that uh you know, Ms. Grover, you're you provide some great examples of how recent changes to tax policy have actually started to accomplish that. Now, uh Ms.
▶ 0:47:01Matsui made the point that well no these tax incentives don't really influence behavior and in your testimony at least in your written testimony you noted well you sort of agree with that with something like the the Pennsylvania employer childare tax credit that's $150 or $500 uh on a $500 contribution that is uh but you uh testified that the new uh 45F expanded tax credit is a whole different story and that this actually starts to impact business decisions.
▶ 0:47:29So, could you just expound on kind of how this passes the threshold where it actually influences business decision-m?
▶ 0:47:37Certainly. I I think there are a couple of components to it. Um, so first, as you said, it's $150 on a total $500 contribution, which in the grand scheme of things from a tax credit standpoint really isn't a lot to move the needle, right? It's something that's there, but it's not meaningful.
▶ 0:47:53Uh 45F on the other hand in this expansion um really opens itself up in a way that allows uh help to small and midsize businesses as opposed to just making this type these types of programs available to very large corporations. Um it allows pooling and the use of intermediaries which adds a ton of value. Um small employers can participate or find ways to participate without operating a child care.
▶ 0:48:20Um, and in general, the tax credit, especially one of this size, I think opens the eyes of any rational business person who's going to look at this and say, "Wow, not only is there benefit to me for my employees in doing this, right? I'm going to be able to improve my retention, improve my recruitment, help make sure that I'm bringing in the future of the workforce that I so desperately need in order to run my business, especially in a peopleheavy industry like manufacturing, right?
▶ 0:48:49So it makes a lot of sense, but I'm also going to be able to offset some of the risk through this initial tax credit. So to me, uh the numbers foot a lot better in terms of that initial payoff or that initial investment making a lot of sense and that's really where this difference at 45F makes in my opinion.
▶ 0:49:08Thank you. Such an important point that we have uh you know new federal investment here and the impact is going to sort of multiply beyond and you know several multiples beyond what the actual level of the federal investment is by encouraging behavior in the private sector. Uh so with the limited time I have left here uh Miss Afanso um could you just expand a little bit on how you are able to actually not only provide child care but actually provide child care in a way that specifically works with the the setup of the businesses that you you partner with.
▶ 0:49:43Thank you. Um, it's really important that we understand the businesses we're partnering with and what their goals are. Are they in a rural community? Are they small? Are they midsize to help them understand how they can gain access to child care? And like Mrs. Grover had mentioned, it comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be on-site child care. It can be access to a network of child care that's supported by tuition subsidy.
▶ 0:50:10Um, it can be provided in a way where a corporation provides a sliding fee scale so that they can meet the needs and the affordability for everyone in their employee population. Um, and it also reaches into the school age programs, backup care program where some employees have child care but that falls through and they need support in those emergency
▶ 0:50:33Thank you very much. I now recognize the ranking member for five minutes.
▶ 0:50:36Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses, especially Red Rooster Coffee and I2M. Really appreciate hearing what you've done to provide childcare, and I know how that helps with recruitment and retention. I've heard it at home from from businesses as well. Um I I I want to follow up a little bit on the tax credit conversation that the chairman was having and that we've heard in the testimony. Um and ask you, uh Miss Mattsuie, you talked about this. I don't call the big beautiful bill. I call the big ugly bill.
▶ 0:51:05Um because the Medicaid cuts, the SNAP cuts and a lot of of harm. But that as we heard today and we know made changes to um 45F. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about how was 45F working before. Will the changes that were made in this this bill uh solve this the problems with it?
▶ 0:51:27But also even assuming that 45F is somehow fixed and enhanced, is that a way to solve the nationwide child care crisis? Are there better ways we could be doing
▶ 0:51:39Congresswoman, thank you for the question. What the research demonstrated over 25 years of 45F as it operated previously is that as I mentioned overwhelmingly large corporations used the credit and that is because they are better situated to meet the off the the upfront costs of either opening a child care center for their employees or contributing.
▶ 0:52:04they may very well have been offering those benefits already and in that sense the credit operated as a reward rather than as an incentive.
▶ 0:52:12The changes that were made to section 45F in HR1 didn't really change some of the fundamental structures of the credit. First, you know, as as some have noted, opening a child care center can exceed a million dollars. That hasn't been the case for the witnesses on the panel, but it's a significant upfront cost. And as a result, having a tax break after the fact may not help businesses who want to take that step, that extraordinary step for their employees.
▶ 0:52:40And even if they did, would this solve the problem nation nationwide?
▶ 0:52:44Certainly, it should um it will help their employees, but it shouldn't matter for a family who they work for or where they live. They still are going to need access to child care. And the employer provided benefit hasn't shown that it can materially increase supply in communities, raise wages for the child care workforce, which is a huge critical component of reduced supply and make a s the change that we need for the system we need.
▶ 0:53:09And I want to follow up on that um the issue of the the low pay that that faces many childcare workers and that's what is part of this um uh imperfect there's no market solution because we can't raise tuition. people already pay too much. Uh but we know childcare providers are often making poverty wages. So that is a really important part. We have to have uh sustainable wages for for childare workers.
▶ 0:53:35Um in interestingly recently we had a hearing in this committee and I'm going to make this connect here. We had a hearing about the role of private equity in youth sports. It was a really interesting hearing. I think there's bipartisan interest in how private equity is taking over youth sports. So, I want to ask you, Miss Burke Alfonso, uh, Bane Capital owns Bright Horizons. Is that correct?
▶ 0:54:00No, they don't. They were They helped founded the company back in 1986, but they are no longer. We aren't a private equity company today.
▶ 0:54:09Okay. But you are a for-profit company.
▶ 0:54:11We are a for-profit company.
▶ 0:54:12Do you know what the average salary is of a childare worker at Bright Horizons? The average salary of our childare workers is about $24 which has increased about 50% since 2020. In 2024, the median annual total compensation of all employees uh other than the CEO at Bright Horizons was $33,164. That's public information.
▶ 0:54:36So that means people are making some people are making more and some people are making less than $33,164 which is not very much. Do you dispute that figure?
▶ 0:54:47What I would say is I have spent my entire career fighting for actual wages and benefits for workers and really trying to insist that that is the key to actually running quality child care to reducing the turnover for for us. Our child care workers are our workers. I
▶ 0:55:07I appreciate that. And your total compensation package in 2024 was how Off the top of my head, I don't know.
▶ 0:55:16It was 1.9 million and your CEOs was more than five million. And I point that out because, you know, as I said before, this is an untenable system that cannot be remedied through a market solution. And especially if the if the the solution is focused on what for-profit companies do is focus on profit. Uh the the mission here should be to focus on how do we have affordable child care for students and young children across the country. And the simple fact is that there aren't enough childare workers.
▶ 0:55:45Most of them do make very lower poverty wages, but child care is already expensive and families can't afford to pay more. We need real policies that invest in the workforce and cap costs for families. Democrats have multiple bills to do that, including the childcare for working families act. We need a comprehensive solution that that get Mr. Chairman, you went over a bit. So that we need a comprehensive solution that solves the problem for the entire country. And I yield back. The representative from Guam, Mr. Moan, is recognized for five minutes.
▶ 0:56:15Chairman Kylie, ranking member Bonan Mitchi, thanks for hosting today's hearing on child care. It's one of the most pressing issues for families across our country. As everyone here knows, access to child care is one of the biggest challenges to working families and often leaves parents with an impossible choice. Either leave the workforce to take care of a child or take steep costs to pay for child care.
▶ 0:56:41Successful and innovative involvement by employers in child care have expanded access in recent years. As part of the working family tax cuts, House Republicans also made permanent expanded and expanded the 45F employer provided child care tax act which allows businesses to offset some of the costs associated with providing child care with licensed providers.
▶ 0:57:08But addressing child care affordability requires an an of the above approach to address all aspects contributing to child care costs including workforce training employer initiatives and programs that support providers. So that's why in addition to supporting 45F credit I supported the child care development block grant and initiatives that help fix problems with supply.
▶ 0:57:37Now in Guam, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, making up more than 95% of all businesses. Mr. Paulino Hensley, as a small business owner in the town with small population like Guam, how has the 45F tax credit helped you invest in child care for your employers employees?
▶ 0:58:02Thanks for your question. um we didn't use 45F. You know, when we started in 2018, we were um extremely small, very naive, and we were solving the problem that was directly in front of us, which was that, um we had children that needed care. And we had several employees, uh young women who were pregnant and wanted to continue their careers with Red Rooster.
▶ 0:58:28They were some of our most passionate, loyal and um you know determined employees and we wanted to help them with that problem and and and enable them to continue their careers. So um you know it's hard for me to speak directly to the 45F program except for that I think that the expansion of it is uh a good thing.
▶ 0:58:53I think that uh a little bit of clarification from the IRS on how to continue that program and how to actually execute the program would be terrific. And I think that um I think that it will expand child care opportunities alongside the the block grant as well. Is there anything else you could add on how Congress can further support small businesses who wish to provide child care for their employees?
▶ 0:59:24Well, I think tax incentiv cost is is pretty prohibitive. But at the same time, um you know, the the point of business is to grow. And as you grow, you have more and more opportunity to take advantage of of those type of things.
▶ 0:59:49And I think that my position is funding is the issue is that in every case um child care needs more funding.
▶ 1:00:06No matter where it comes from, teachers, caregivers need to be paid more and also businesses will from more child care. to Miss Grubber's point that employees come from offering child care.
▶ 1:00:30Loyal loyal employees, reliable employees, and happy employees um who help businesses grow, come from helping with child care. Thank you. Um Miss Alfonso, in your written testimony, you mentioned that Bright Horizons operates programs in every state represented by this subcommittee. So, I'm curious. Does Bright Horizon operate programs in any of the territories?
▶ 1:00:58I'm not used to that. Um, we operate in uh a center in Puerto Rico for a um client of ours. Um, and that is probably the only territory where we operate in right now.
▶ 1:01:12Maybe we should talk some more. That would be good expansion there. But just quickly, how can Congress support expanding child care availability in rural and remote areas?
▶ 1:01:22Yeah, I think everything's a piece to the solution. I don't think there's one solution that's going to solve all of this. And I firmly believe parents play a role, the government plays a role, employers pay a play a role, and it's trying to evolve all the beginnings that we have in all of these areas to actually make it accessible to all businesses to actually want to invest in whatever the unique solution is for their company
▶ 1:01:52so that we can get more people back into the workforce and so companies can retain people. So they don't have the turnover and right now so many um people are delaying when they have children and what that means is they have a talented educated workforce that may make the choice to go out of the workforce if there isn't child care for them like there was for me.
▶ 1:02:14Thank you. Thank you chairman. Uh the representative from North Carolina, Miss Adams, is recognized.
▶ 1:02:19Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for being here. Before I begin, I I want to enter into the the record a joint statement from the National Organization on Federation of Child Care Program where 42 organizations that want federal child care programs. Mr. Chairman, I want to do without
▶ 1:02:35Thank you. Uh you know, I'm I'm listening to my colleagues and I've got to tell you that yes, we got to pay people. Congress knows what it needs to do. We need to step up. We can't cons we can't sit in here and talk about we need child care, we need child care, and yet we're not doing what we need to do to make that happen for people. But uh having said that, let me just say that there is a child care crisis in this country.
▶ 1:03:00Uh child care costs far too too much for workingclass families and and early educators barely make enough money to keep a roof roof over their heads. Working hard is not enough if you don't make enough. We got to pay people. Uh it's shameful that in the wealthiest country in the world, most people can't afford child care. That this is no no accident. It's a policy choice. But it doesn't have to be this way.
▶ 1:03:25During the the COVID pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act made historic investments in our child care system. But these investments were temporary. We need to go back and bring them back. As since the expiration of the ARPA funding, the child care crisis has has only worsened for both families and early educators. In North Carolina, the average childare worker makes around 7% less than in 2019.
▶ 1:03:50As a result, our state has 6% fewer early uh educators uh than in 2019. At the same time, child care costs have increased by almost 25% in the past three years. The Trump administration, House Republicans have only exacerbated this crisis by cutting staff at Head Start and weakening our already insufficient social safety net.
▶ 1:04:15Low pay lends uh many leads uh many childare workers to rely on public assistance uh to survive. Researchers at Berkeley estimate that 43% of early educator families rely on some kind of public assistance like SNAP or Medicaid. Miss Manusi, uh, can you explain how the big ugly bill, that's what we call it, that's what we know it to be, will affect early educators and the child care system more broadly?
▶ 1:04:45Thank you for the question, Congresswoman. As you noted, the HR1 made significant historic cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, which are some of the benefits that child care workers rely on to support themselves and their families. As you noted, they're paid so little that often early educators are leaving the profession to work in retail, to go work at box stores.
▶ 1:05:07The other aspect of HR1 which is important for child care educators is that it did ramp up resources for detention and uh deportation for immigrants and because about 20% of the early care workforce are immigrants that puts additional pressure on the workforce.
▶ 1:05:25Thank you ma'am. So ensuring all families have access to highquality affordable chair means that we need more child care centers and more seats. and what level of infrastructure investment is needed to make childcare more
▶ 1:05:40Thank you for the question. Notably, the childcare for working family act would make significant investments both to ensure provider and child care teacher pay but also have grants so that more child care providers can open their doors and and offer solutions to to families in their in their communities.
▶ 1:05:58Great. the the lifetime wage gap for women in the United States is almost half a million dollars and and is over $1 million for black women. So, can you explain how the lack of affordable child care options in the United States disproportionately affects women and in particular women of color and how robust federal investment in child care as proposed by the child care for working families act could reduce lifetime gender earnings gaps.
▶ 1:06:28So caregiving is is kind of disproportionately um born by by women. And so what we have seen is that when child care is less available, when child care is more expensive, women tend to be the ones that drop out of the workforce in response and provide uncare unpaid caregiving. Conversely, we have seen that for you if universal child care has been offered, rearch research demonstrates that that will cause more women to work full-time full year.
▶ 1:06:56that raises their lifetime incomes and it increases their retirement benefits and social security.
▶ 1:07:01Great. Thank you. So, fixing our child care system is going to be expensive, but it seems to me that providing highquality child care to all Americans will have a strong return on investment. So, could you quantify the effect that accessible child care would have on the economy? We know that having reliable, accessible, affordable child care helps families, puts more dollars in their pockets. It supports the workforce. It helps employers. It grows the economy.
▶ 1:07:30If the United States made investments in care more broadly, same as other highincome European countries, it could increase women's employment, and that would grow the economy to the tune of over 700 billion dollars a year.
▶ 1:07:44Well, thank you very much. Enough said. I appreciate it. Thanks very much. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:07:49Representative Harris of North Carolina is recognized.
▶ 1:07:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and uh thank you to all the witnesses for your time and uh your expertise that you're sharing today. You know, the federal government cannot simply spend or regulate its way out of America's child care problems.
▶ 1:08:06Yet, despite that reality, my colleagues on the other side continue to rely on that very same failed playbook today, calling on Congress to pour billions of more taxpayer dollars into failed child care programs that deepen the problem, weakens accountability, and invites fraud. I mean, we're seeing the consequences of that approach play out right before our eyes in Minnesota, where weak oversight has allowed child care subsidy programs to become magnets for the waste, fraud, and abuse.
▶ 1:08:37Just look at the totally legitimate quality learing center in Minneapolis. The typo in the name says it all. While we agree that the child care crisis must be addressed, I believe state and local governments along with the private sector are best equipped to meet the unique child care needs of their communities. So, Mr.
▶ 1:08:58Paulino Hensley, as someone who represents a largely rural district myself, I was encouraged by your testimony and by your effort to develop an innovative solution that meets the needs of your employees. Given your location in rural Virginia, what have been some of the greatest challenges you faced in operating your company's child care services for the employees and the yellow hen? And and what advice would you offer to other rural business owners who decide to follow your lead?
▶ 1:09:29Thanks for your question. I think we got really lucky um at the beginning because we had the space and we found a director and I would suggest that some of the biggest challenges overall but especially in uh rural areas is finding real estate, finding a building, finding a place to actually have a child care facility. It's an extremely big challenge especially as real estate prices continue to rise.
▶ 1:10:00Um, the other is staffing. We got incredibly lucky to find someone who had just lost their job but was experienced in licensing and was extremely bright and basically took over our child care center. So, um, you know, fortune smiled on us, but that's not the case for everybody. Uh, space is at a premium.
▶ 1:10:27Uh, you know, I sit on the board of my children's school, Blue Mountain School in Floyd, Virginia as well. And, um, they are a licensed early childhood uh, provider as well. And, you know, they they simply don't have the the resources or the space to add more The need is there.
▶ 1:10:50There are many many children in the surrounding areas in New River Valley who need quality care, but we can't add any more to that space because um there's there's simply not the space. So, those two uh things to me seem to be the primary challenges is if you can find talented individuals who can help run your facility and can you find the space for the facility.
▶ 1:11:15You you mentioned the child care benefits at at Yellow Hen have evolved. I noticed in your written testimony since you first opened the facility to focus more on before and after care and a summer program while school was not in session. Can you say a word about what factors drove that evolution and what considerations do you weigh when deciding how to adjust the child care services you offer to better meet the needs of your employees?
▶ 1:11:41Sure. Thanks. Um really that happened very quickly. Um we were sort of faced with the need to evolve because uh our long-term director who had worked for us for almost seven years left uh the business actually left the country and and um at the same time we had a couple of employees whose spouses got jobs outside of the state and and um they took their children with them uh as they will do and that left almost no children no toddlers
▶ 1:12:11in Yellow Hen during the day because uh we have an aging workforce. as it were, and people aren't having small children anymore. And so my wife and I really wanted to reinvest that money that we had been putting into Yellow Hen. And so we evolved the program into a financial uh assistance uh for families um by way of reimbursing child care costs, but also uh investing in an employer funded um college savings
▶ 1:12:42Thank you. Thank you very much. With that, Mr. Chair, I'll yield back.
▶ 1:12:46Representative Grahaba of Arizona is
▶ 1:12:50Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I would like to submit to ask unanimous consent to submit um this article from the Center for American Progress titled Trump's Attack on Childcare Funding.
▶ 1:13:02Without objection.
▶ 1:13:04Thank you. Um, you know, I was on a school board in and um served for 20 years on a um urban school district, uh, southern Arizona's largest school district, and one of the first things that we did is work to address, um, preschool and early childhood education issues because it's so critical.
▶ 1:13:23And then when I was on the um board of supervisors, we did the same thing in Puma County being I think the first county in Arizona to subsidize um child care and early childhood education because we know it's so important. Um one of the things that we're focusing on here is employers and how they um fill in some of the gaps. So I'm wondering I'll address this um to Miss uh Matt Suie.
▶ 1:13:49Today's hearing focuses on child care, but care for the youngest infants in is the most expensive and least accessible to parents. Also has the most limited number of slots available. We do not nationally guarantee parents access to paid parental leave, which means many parents are forced to forego paychecks just as they welcome new members into their families. Mothers are forced to return to work long before their bodies have healed um from labor.
▶ 1:14:16And so I'm wondering if you could speak on how the current system employer provided parental leave impacts parents.
▶ 1:14:23Thank you for the question. As you note um paid leave is very tightly connected to child care and both of those are necessary supports for families for workers who are trying to balance their family and workplace obligations. Unfortunately, in this country, because we don't have a comprehensive paid leave program, less than 20% of um employees have access to paid leave. And as a result, as you noted, that really puts them in a bind. They can't care for themselves.
▶ 1:14:51They can't care for their youngest children at home if that's what they want to and afford to can afford to do. And at the same time, there isn't high there aren't a lot of spots for infants and toddlers where they can have their children cared for when they go back to work.
▶ 1:15:06Yeah. Um various states and um local municipalities have experimented with offering paid parental leave. How do these policies impact parental
▶ 1:15:18So, I think what we've seen around the country is that when um supports are available for parents, they take advantage of them because they need them. Um and I think one other thing which connects paid leave policies, the support that they've received in states to child care is that there are as you know states that have made significant investments in child care. But it shouldn't matter where a family lives or who they work for so that they can access the supports they need to care for themselves and their families and go to work.
▶ 1:15:47I think we all can agree that employers when they know that their children are in safe spaces that they're learning and happy that they're happier people you're able to go go to work um without this sense of dread because you know you know that your child is going to be t well taken care of and I think that we all can agree that we need to expand more opportunities for that to happen for every um every person that wants to work and also you know grow have a family.
▶ 1:16:16So, over the past few weeks, we've seen the administration take action over alleged or suspected fraud in federal uh childcare payments. Thankfully, courts have paused the administration's um freezing of this funding um despite no independ independent investigation by the federal government and despite the state child care agency contradicting allegations without producing concrete evidence of fraud, the Trump's administration tried to freeze childare funds for five states.
▶ 1:16:46They also instituted defend the spend for remaining states, which I hear is causing major delays in states being able to access funds. U M Matsui, do you agree that actual instances of fraud in childare programs using federal funds should be investigated and brought to justice? Thank you for the question.
▶ 1:17:04It's a really troubling situation and the important thing for us to focus on is that the Trump administration's response really threatens significant harm to hundreds of thousands of children to families who rely on child care and also to providers. Freezing funds for entire states on unsubstantiated allegations has created even though there's a court order has created significant uncertainty and delay and fear both amongst providers and for parents.
▶ 1:17:34Parents don't know if they have child care so they can just go to work and feed their families and providers are worried about being able to keep their doors open. I think the other thing just to note is that um allowing and taking fast unprecedented action like this on unsubstantiated allegations really has given license to kind of vigilantes to go to child care providers both in Minnesota and in other states.
▶ 1:18:01We really do not want a situation where random people are knocking on providers doors and asking to be let in. It creates significant harm and fear not only for providers and child care teachers but also for the children in their care. So fraud is obviously significant and important and when there are substantiated allegations it's important for states to investigate. There are procedures and processes in place.
▶ 1:18:25There are also measures in federal law and those are what should be followed rather than wholesale freezing funding to entire states. Thank you so much um for your insight and I yield back.
▶ 1:18:39Representative Owens of Utah is
▶ 1:18:41Thank you so much and and uh Chairman, thank you for this very timely uh topic. Um I want to first of all congratulate each and every one of you guys here that understand the power of profit. Only in DC will you come to a place when forprofit is bad where at the end of the day all profit means that you found a niche. You you've given a great service. People love what you're doing. and they keep coming back and that's the goal of business ownership.
▶ 1:19:06So I I think that the the timing is so good that we now have these two ways of of viewing things as we look at 9 billion dollars of waste spart and abuse. No business will survive if that was the way they ran their business. So I want to thank you guys uh of all the times we have now with close to $18 trillion of reinvestment coming back to our country. We all know there is a a lack in workforce. We've done a very bad job of educating our kids. be prepared for this. We're now changing that.
▶ 1:19:34Uh, and this is really, somebody said earlier, the employees are in the driver's seat. The employees now have a chance to say, you know, what are my priorities? My priorities, make sure my kids are growing healthy, that they're safe, that I can focus on my job, and what does a business owner do? Everything you do to uh address those issues. So, thank you for your for-profit attitude, your muscle memory of trying to find solutions.
▶ 1:19:59And this is the kind of conversation we need to continue to have, not with DC bureaucrats who've never understood what it is to have any anxiety about running a business or paying a uh their their keeping their good good employees and retention. So, thank you for this timing, my friends. I really appreciate it. Uh in Utah, we are dealing with this. Also, um depending on the age of the child, it can cost in Utah anywhere from $8,000 to $13,000 per year per child. uh these these costs obviously add up very quickly.
▶ 1:20:29Uh in Utah particularly, we believe in uh in in having a bunch of kids. We have that's our culture and the high cost is uh is very detrimental to that process. So I'm a strong supporter of the CCDBG to help low-income families obtain child care so that parents can come to work um and put put on the table and and build their dreams. Again, the most important thing we need to understand it has to be a a private partnership. uh the answers will not come here from DC for folks who have no idea what it is to run a business.
▶ 1:21:00It will come from the innovators like yourself. So please continue to come to us, think outside the box. I think we have now administration. We have a window in which if there's anything we can do to make sure that your industry is surviving, thriving. Now is the time we break through all the barriers of regulations and thinking of being very innovative, make this all work. So I want to thank you guys again for that.
▶ 1:21:20Um, Miss Grover, uh, with the local child care center not not only benefiting your employees but also child care center itself by providing financial security, how can you can you elaborate a little more on how the employer partnership with child care centers can have a positive effect on other families in the community seeking for uh, care for their child?
▶ 1:21:43Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Um really what we see is a ripple effect when the uh when our team members are supported, their childrens are children are supported, when the um supplier of child care in the area is supported, has business, has children, continues to grow and thrive, that has a ripple effect, especially in communities like ours where it allows additional economies of scale to grow, profit, um and and ultimately thrive. So I I see it as a very symbiotic relationship.
▶ 1:22:14um uh the the the partnership that we've had especially in being able to expand hours and allow for our team members who again they don't work a 9 to5 they're going to be working 12-hour shifts um to to have that level of flexibility to make that child care accessible for them. Um that's opened up other models for them. And so it it allows sort of this grassroots approach that to your very point allows profitability across the board. And profitability isn't bad.
▶ 1:22:44It just means sustainability. It means that the idea is good and that it means it's going to last a long time. Um, and ultimately that's what we see between the partnership with I2M and with our childcare provider partners.
▶ 1:22:55Thank you so much. Uh, Mr. Boseno Hazley, I'll get that right. First of all, thank you uh for um way before this became a topic before before it's a cool conversation, you saw a need and you serviced it and because of that, here we are now because of your success. So, thank you for that. That's what the entrepreneur does. By the way, uh how does your uh child care access change who's able to work in your community? You you're in a rural community, am I
▶ 1:23:22That's correct. Yes. U there's about 450 people in the town of Floyd and 15,500 in the county of Floyd. So, it's a pretty rural area. And um you know, for us, what we've seen is single parents and working mothers. That's the people who are most affected by lack of child care. And those are the people who are able to come and work at registered coffee and take on leadership roles to be honest. Um so that's been wonderful for us.
▶ 1:23:49It's been a focus of my wife, you know, who owns half of our business to make sure that um we pave a way for working mothers to take on leadership roles in our in our company. And it's been very rewarding.
▶ 1:24:03Thank you. Let me just my my big ass is this. Um, we have a a special window with our administration with a America first Congress in in Senate. Please think outside the box. Now is the time to make a difference in your industry which allows us to have this workforce we need desperately. So thank you and uh with that I yield back.
▶ 1:24:22Representative Lee of Pennsylvania is
▶ 1:24:25Thank you Mr. Chairman. There I I think is is no question that we have a child care crisis in this country. In my home state of Pennsylvania, infant and toddler care uh costs on average about per year, while the average uh childcare worker in my district makes less than $30,000 per year. So, it would cost almost half of their annual salary to actually care for their own children. Uh in that system, uh that system is broken.
▶ 1:24:54So, we should support employers providing child care benefits to their workers. But for every employer represented at our hearing today, how many others don't offer any child care or paid leave when workers have to care for their sick children or other family members? This is a very big country with diverse industries and different types of business leaders. If we are sitting here and we're waiting for everybody to be benevolent, we are going to be waiting forever.
▶ 1:25:22We can't only look at employers and the private sector to fix a broken system that everybody is under. So, just like with K through2 education, child care can't be both affordable for families and provide a living wage uh for workers without public investment. Republicans know this and yet they're doing everything in their power to undermine public investment in childare.
▶ 1:25:47They've made historic cuts, we know, uh, to SNAP benefits and Medicaid, which over 20% of Pennsylvania's children, uh, and childcare workers, excuse me, rely on. Their budget proposals decrease or eliminate child care programs altogether. Um, and just last week, this administration tried to unlawfully freeze $2.4 billion in child care subsidies to five Democratic states or Democratic le states. This freeze would disrupt child care for over 500,000 children.
▶ 1:26:17It would delay payments that providers rely on to keep their doors open and to it would create chaos and confusion and a strain for families who need it the most. This administration has also cut uh sorry created unlawful roadblocks for critical programs such as home head start.
▶ 1:26:35In December, Head Start grantees alleged that the administration threatened to deny their funding uh applications if they didn't remove um a list of nearly 200 words and phrases such as accessible, belong, black, disability, woman, trauma, or tribal. Miss Masouie, aren't his Stark grantees statutoily obligated to provide linguistically and culturally appropriated services and early intervention services for children with That is correct.
▶ 1:27:03And it makes it extremely difficult for Head Start employees and workers to both comply with their statutory obligation to serve children with disabilities and not use the word disability in grant
▶ 1:27:16Thank you. I was going to ask if if there had been any ramifications of that or how or what type a possible workaround could these programs, you know, implement to serve, you know, these this critical population. I think it's an ongoing struggle to do that. And again, having uncertainty, not knowing what the outcome is going to be if a word is chosen wrong or written wrongly. These are workers who are worried for their jobs as well as for caring for the children in their in their care.
▶ 1:27:45And so any kind of additional burden, obligation, uncertainty, fear makes it even more difficult to do that. Thank you. Um, in your testimony, you mentioned that employer provided childcare credits are most likely to benefit large corporate employers and are most likely to serve high paid white collar employees. If the goal is creating the best access to uh to child care for the most workers or employer provided childcare credit is the best way to go and if if not what direction do you believe uh would be better?
▶ 1:28:14Certainly that for some employers this is a solution that works but it's not a solution that has that is going to work comprehensively across the board so that no matter where people live no matter where they work for they have access to the care they need that meets their families we can only do that through robust public investments. The childcare for working families act offers a clear model for how to do that.
▶ 1:28:35Thank you so much. I would agree. Um, we know that if Republicans are genuine in their suggestion that employer provided benefits are the answer to trial crisis, then why are we voting on a bill later today that weakens these very investments? Republicans on this committee voted to send the so-called empowering employer child and elder care solutions acts to the House floor. This bill would allow employers to exclude child care benefits for overtime pay.
▶ 1:28:58If an employee is working overtime, they have an even greater need for childare and this bill will remove the resources that they depend on. So that is why uh I am submitting an uh an amendment to replace that bill with the child care for working families act. It's the legislation that I introduced with ranking member Scott that would expand public investment in child care and get us closer to a system that is accessible for all. If my Republican colleagues care about children and families, I encourage them to mark up that bill, the Child Care for Working Families Act.
▶ 1:29:27Send that to the floor and let's talk about comprehensive approaches uh that will help all families across our country and not just those who are the most privileged or those who are in uh undermployment with employers who have taken upon themselves to implement solutions that are not as wide reaching as we would need them to be. I thank you so much for your time and I yield back. The chairman of the full committee, Mr. Wahberg of Michigan, is recognized.
▶ 1:29:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I uh look forward to supporting the child care bill that's on the floor today. I also appreciate the fact that as time moves, I think many will see that taking out waste, fraud, and abuse in the child care nutrition system, etc., will allow more dollars, more funding, more opportunity, more choice for businesses of all sizes to do what they know they want to do.
▶ 1:30:19They know what their employees need and they want to retain those employees in a time when there's competition for the employees that are there. Um, thank you to the panel for being here. Um, Mr. P Paul Pulsino Hensley. I I note that in addition to running Red Rooster Coffee, you also serve on the board of Blue Mountain School uh and on the board of directors of Sustain Floyd, a rural nonprofit in the Blue Ridge Mountains. You keep busy.
▶ 1:30:48Uh and that's generally the characteristic of people get things done as well. How have those experiences shaped your thinking about child care as an economic and workforce support Thank you, sir. Um, well, certainly working with Blue Mountain School has been an eye-opening experience because, um, you know, that's an early child care provider, but also a school.
▶ 1:31:14And so what we see there is that the need is so pervasive, the need is so widespread for uh quality child care um that it it's almost a it's almost a a desperation um parents are sort of queued up and lined up to find a place to to have uh quality child care.
▶ 1:31:41I mean, recently uh as as recently as November of 2025, the largest child care provider in our county closed because they could not keep staff. Um their turnover was so high and and what that essentially meant is that they couldn't pay their providers well enough to keep them on their staff.
▶ 1:32:02And so, uh, wi with the loss of so much staff, our our largest daycare facility in the county closed, only increasing the need, uh, in in Floyd County and and I'm sure that there are many stories just like that, uh, throughout the country, which has a huge economic problem issue that goes on with that and and the ability to leave more dollars that individuals can invest in in choices of their own, leave that in their pockets as opposed to sending it to Washington, things we're attempting
▶ 1:32:33to do with the tax cuts and the the tax cuts and jobs act and then onto the workforce uh development that we put in uh the one big beautiful bill. We look forward to the fact that there will be dollars in place that we can keep the businesses open as well and people can afford. Let me let me move to uh Miss Burke Alfonso.
▶ 1:32:54You you help companies of all sizes uh from small businesses with 40 employees to global corporations evaluate and implement child care solutions for a varied workforce. Why is the child care need so ubiquitous across all industries and company sizes?
▶ 1:33:14Thank you for your question. I think in order for people to go to work and working parents in particular, they need child care and we need to and and children need child care. Zero to five is the most critical time for brain development for children.
▶ 1:33:33And so I see it as a means not only to help parents get back to the workforce and to bring more people into the workforce and to keep them at companies so that companies can grow, but also for the children of those families to get the best start they can get to become good citizens and good workers potentially at the companies where they're actually receiving the child care.
▶ 1:33:56Yeah. without the idleness and lack of encouragement that that would go if they were just left to themselves. Correctly.
▶ 1:34:03Well, thank you for what you do. Uh, Miss Grover, how does employer retention related to child care benefits affect your long-term talent pipeline and training investment?
▶ 1:34:16Manufacturing is at a crossroads in the United States. Um, there's an enormous amount of growth and simply not enough people to fill that void. And we hear it time and time again. Um, and so finding creative ways that help recruit, retain the best of the best in order to promote and grow United States manufacturing is absolutely critical. Um, and so child care is one of those tools, right? There are many.
▶ 1:34:39Um, but when I think about the workforce, when I think about their needs, when I think about what is going to help contribute to them being a successful long-term team member, uh, everyone has said it right. the uh the impact of having your child in a stable, secure, reliable child care facility is unprecedented and critical.
▶ 1:34:59Um and so when I think about what are the keys that are going to help with retention, help with solving that manufacturing talent and skills gap, it child care is one of those main items that's going to allow us to be competitive, continue to grow, and continue to drive manufacturing in the United States home.
▶ 1:35:15Thank you. A key tool. I yield back,
▶ 1:35:19Mr. Manion of New York is recognized.
▶ 1:35:21Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to our witnesses here today who are providing very detailed and passionate uh testimony. I believe that the child care crisis is one of our nation's biggest challenges and it's one of the biggest challenges in the district that I represent. In far too many communities, including in New York 22, costs have skyrocketed and there's simply not enough facilities uh or available slots to meet the demand.
▶ 1:35:47Shockingly, long wait lists have now become the norm, and parents are frustrated by a lack of options. Nearly every family is concerned about child care affordability. This problem is not limited to low-income households or specific areas. Middle class and even higher inome families feel this as well. And it's an issue regardless of where you live. Parents should never have to choose between making a living and taking care of their kids.
▶ 1:36:18We need to strengthen our federal commitment to child care, investing in provider sites, improving wages for the workers, and also helping families afford it. In my time in the New York State Legislature, we met those challenges by creating a uh targeted program targeted towards micro deserts and deserts where uh child care gaps existed.
▶ 1:36:43This was a competitive and rigorous program, a grant program that allowed existing facilities to expand and for new facilities to be started. Um, this was money well spent and an analysis just a few years afterwards showed that the demand that existed uh went down because of gaps being filled.
▶ 1:37:07So last week we learned that the Trump administration is attempting to withhold child care funding for what appears to be purely political reasons targeting five Democratic states including my own New York. And let me be clear, this is not a punishment of state governments who this administration is actually hurting in this scenario are thousands of parents who need child care.
▶ 1:37:33And that includes parents in states like New York that have supported the president and employees in child care facilities who have supported the president. So which party happens to be in the governor's seat in a state should not determine whether that state receives funds or families have been impacted
▶ 1:38:04impacted tremendously and the actions of withholding these funds are unamerican. They're partisan. They're immoral and they don't just hurt people of one political party. And with that, my questions today are for Miss Matts Suie. Um, some of the policy options available at the federal level are what my questions are related to.
▶ 1:38:26So, first, how could we enhance the child tax credit, which is only partially refundable to ensure that all families are able to take advantage of the full benefit?
▶ 1:38:37Thank you for the question, Congressman. Um during the pandemic under the American Rescue Plan Act, the child tax credit was made fully refundable. And what we saw was that that decreased child poverty by almost 50%. When we asked families how they used those funds, it was to pay the bills. It was also to pay for things like child care.
▶ 1:38:59So refundable increasing the refundability of the child tax credit as it was in 2021 really gives families the resources they need to make the decisions that meet their families best. and that includes paying for childare.
▶ 1:39:11Thank you. And uh second, the corporate tax code obviously taxes profits, not revenues for smaller businesses operating on smaller margins and with fewer profits. Can you talk about why certain corporate tax credits might be inaccessible or frustrating uh to try to access for main street businesses?
▶ 1:39:36Thank you for the question. The way that most corporate tax credits are structured is that as non-refundable credits. And so that means if a company doesn't have tax liability against which to apply it, the credit is basically meaningless. In some cases, they can apply it to pre pre previous years or to future years, but for companies that have small profit margins or for nonprofits, those are not tax benefits that incentivize them. They just aren't
▶ 1:40:05Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
▶ 1:40:08Representative Mesmer of Indiana is
▶ 1:40:10Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the witnesses for being here today. I'm I'm pleased to have HR 2270 hitting the floor this afternoon. Uh we currently dis disincentivize or incentivize uh investment based on your tax policy. Uh currently overtime rates are not impacted by health insurance costs paid by the employer, holiday pay, vacation pay, bonuses. But because in 1938 no one anticipated employer-based uh child care or elder care for their employees.
▶ 1:40:4188 years ago it was it didn't exist. Uh today it it does exist and and we can dis disincentivize the behavior by by the way we have the tax treatment that that that those benefits provide. So uh with that Miss Grover um you've spoken about the business benefits of offering child care. Can you please elaborate on how offering childcare benefits can help an employer's bottom
▶ 1:41:07Certainly. So, we talked about a couple of different elements. Um, one of them being retention. The cost or um uh the cost to a business of constantly hiring, rehiring, and losing key members especially in manufacturing which is very people capital and very knowledgeheavy is almost unquantifiable. Um so ensuring that you have a consistent stable workforce is one of the ways that you're able to deliver a quality and consistent product which in turn dramatically impacts your profitability.
▶ 1:41:38Um second to that uh the the the cost of calloffs or inconsistency or instability within your workforce for manufacturing facilities that operate 247 or continuously. ensuring that you have a stable and steady group of uh team members who are able to show up uh be on time and uh and and be there for their shift is incredibly important from a profitability standpoint, from a delivery for customer standpoint.
▶ 1:42:07So all of those elements play a role with child care because if you don't have the child care, if you don't have consistency or stability for your kids, it's very difficult then to retain your job and come to work which ultimately impacts the bottom line of the business.
▶ 1:42:21Thank you. Uh Miss Burke Alfonso, uh what are the biggest barriers, cost, regulation or uncertainty that prevent more employers from investing in child
▶ 1:42:32Thank you for your question. I think as an employer thinks about entering the child care space, some of the barriers are the space availability of whether they do it, the actual time it will take to actually make a decision and build out a child care center and meet the needs of their employee population as well as the costs.
▶ 1:42:53And that's where in partnering with Bright Horizons, we try to really get to know the employer and their employee population to create a solution that works flexibly, whether it's the hours of operation, whether it's the location of the child care center, or the ages that they're trying to deliver the service for.
▶ 1:43:11Thank you. Um, how does child care investment compare to other employer employerled strategies like higher wages, signing bonuses in terms of in uh its effect on a business's ability to attract workers? What I would say is child care is a very sticky benefit. It's it's to me not a nice to have.
▶ 1:43:29It's a must-have benefit, especially for working parents, but it even affects the um employee population beyond just the people using the child care center because if you have the ability to get your employees to show up because they have child care supporting them, they are there for the team that they're working with. And so it has incredible impact when you can actually support not just the families who need the child care but the teams that are working to produce the product or the services of the company.
▶ 1:44:00Okay. Thank you. And also how does uh employer supported child care uh help the supply of child care slots rather than just reallocating existing slots?
▶ 1:44:10Great question. So when I think about employers entering the space and providing child care, they can come in and actually add supply to a community that otherwise relieves supply at community-based centers. We also have employers that actually open up some of their available slots to the community. In addition, we um work with partners to do some training and some uh advancement of the workforce in communities.
▶ 1:44:37And that training is accessible not just to the employees at that center but to employees in the greater community in the workforce of childare.
▶ 1:44:46Thank you. Thank you for your responses and I yield back.
▶ 1:44:50Representative Hayes of Connecticut is
▶ 1:44:54Thank you. Across the country, parents are struggling to access safe, highquality, and affordable child care. And we all know there are not enough slots to meet that demand. While I'm happy to hear that some employers are offering child care options for their employees, the vast majority are not working to increase child care access. Relying on private sector, relying on the private sector alone is not a viable solution to meet the needs of our child care challenges.
▶ 1:45:24As Miss Mattsie noted, these are largely voluntary benefits. I can tell you that I worked in a child care center, a beautiful center, the Stor Club. I was in the toddler room for many years, but this employer offered no discounts to employees and my grandmother watch my children while I spent my day caring for other people's This model leaves out low-income families, parents working multiple jobs, and children with disability
▶ 1:45:54disabilities. Have we as we have seen for many people their child care costs mirror mirror the costs of college tuition and sometimes even more. So we need to focus on protecting and expanding the child care programs that already exist and have been proven to work. Specifically, Congress must work to protect and expand Head Start programs.
▶ 1:46:16I have to tell you, I'm a little biased because I am a Head Start alum, but Head Start is comprehensive early childhood education that provides health, nutrition, uh, parent involvement programs, and all of these needs to low-income families. Head Start fosters stable family relationships, enhances emotional well-being, and prepares children for transition into school.
▶ 1:46:40Miss Matts Suie, is it realistic to expect employer-based child care to meet the nationwide infrastructure needs of our child care system, particularly for children from low-income backgrounds or children with disabilities? Thank you for the question. It's important for us to make significant public investments in the child care system so that no matter where people live, no matter who they work for, they have real meaningful choices about where they can care for their children while they go to work or go to school or look for jobs.
▶ 1:47:10And since we're talking about Head Start, I have to mention Project 2025, which explicitly calls for the elimination of Head Start programs. It calls for defund the defunding of center-based child care and the rolling back or elimination of protections for preschoolers with disabilities. Can you talk a little bit about how uh eliminating the Head Start program would impact families, children, and our
▶ 1:47:37Absolutely. Head Start is an an incredibly important significant component of the child care system. It's had bipartisan support for many, many years. And that's because of the important educational, health, and other services that it provides broadly to communities with low incomes that otherwise might struggle to access those benefits for children. So, any threat to Head Start um along with other forms of child care funding really fundamentally threaten an already fragile and unstable system.
▶ 1:48:08Uh that's very important because we talk a lot about on this committee about people entering the workforce and you know workforce development and all these things but parents cannot work if their children are not safe. So ensuring that we grow and expand these programs is how families move themselves out of poverty is how they enter the workforce and become uh providers for their families. And we have talked so little about what are the alternatives.
▶ 1:48:37I think that many of these um um plans that provide drops in the bucket do not address the larger child care issue of expanding more slots to more children and more communities. And if parents can't afford this even on a sliding scale, uh it doesn't work.
▶ 1:48:58Um, Miss Burke Al alonso, we have uh many of the centers that you represent in the state of Connecticut. As you're talking, I I'm thinking I drive by and I see them all of the time. I'm going to give you a little just some time to talk about how those centers could complement uh the existing maybe Head Start structures or programs that are already Thank you for your question.
▶ 1:49:29Um, what I would say is I think there's many many ways we already work in the communities where we operate to connect with the Head Start programs and other local providers and even national providers because I truly believe it's not one solution. Bright Horizons isn't the only solution. Employer sponsored isn't the only solution. Head Start, it's everything is a piece of the broader puzzle to solve this problem for working parents.
▶ 1:49:54And so when when I think about what we do in the communities where we live and work, we do trainings where other facilities can come together. We've had some partnerships with Head Starts where we've done some local trainings as well well as national trainings. Um I think you know for Bright Horizons we focus on education of young children. We also focus on education of our workforce. So, we provide free education for all of our workers to go get a college degree and continue to develop their careers with Bright Horizons.
▶ 1:50:25Thank you. My time has expired, but I would just say that a really good model for attracting employees is to pay them well. And with that, I yield back.
▶ 1:50:36Representative McKenzie of Pennsylvania is recognized.
▶ 1:50:38Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Want to thank all the testifiers for being here today. A very important topic of child care. Uh as a parent of two under two, I am living and experiencing this every single day. Uh but families all across the country have been living with this for a long time. Uh the challenge of finding affordable quality child care uh right in their local communities. And so it is something that I think we should be working on. And that's why on uh the first month in office, I introduced a package, the working families tax package.
▶ 1:51:08It included four components. expanding paid family and medical leave, trying to also increase the child tax credit, which we were able to successfully do in reconciliation and make it permanent and inflation adjusted, also supporting an increase in the adoption tax credit and matching that for IVF. And then finally, uh, doubling the child care tax credit to offset the cost of child care.
▶ 1:51:31And so thankfully we're focusing on that topic here today because we see that not only is access a challenge, but also affordability is maybe one of the biggest prohibiting factors uh for families from getting their child uh into a child care setting. Uh and then allowing them to stay in the workforce if that's what they choose to do. Uh we also saw that uh it was mentioned uh earlier about Head Start, the the importance of Head Start in our local communities, something that I support.
▶ 1:52:00Uh we saw the impact of the irresponsible Democrat government shutdown at the end of last year and its impact on Head Start programs in our local community. When Democrats chose to shut down the government, they were impacting local families by taking away those opportunities and taking those individuals out of the workforce. Uh so that was very detrimental to our local community. Thankfully, we've moved past that and hopefully we don't see that again. Uh my question for Miss Grover, a fellow Pennian. It's great to see you here today.
▶ 1:52:29Uh you're just north of me in Mountaintop, I see. And so you mentioned in your testimony how reliable child care, like what your company has invested in, not only reduces disruptions uh for keeping current employees from showing up to work, but in a manufacturing business, it also reduced safety risks. So can you help connect the dots between child care, manufacturing safety, and business
▶ 1:52:54Absolutely. And so I think the business success, safety, quality, all of those components go hand inand when you have a engaged, satisfied, calm workforce. Um, one of the things that we see consistently is that, uh, for our team members who have reliable child care, um, who feel confident and comfortable that where their child is placed, they're going to be able to arrive at work on time, they're going to be able to have a successful shift, and that's in turn going to drive great results both from a safety standpoint and from a a material quality and
▶ 1:53:24delivery standpoint. Uh, all of those pieces of the puzzle are interconnected. It comes down to the culture of the business. It comes down to the culture and success of the individual team member and I2M as an individual employer of these of of you know a diverse array of people is uniquely qualified to identify what some of those categories are and what is most important to our employee base as a result uh what is going to then help the company grow as well. Um so it's it's very closely linked.
▶ 1:53:53Um but you have to be at the grassroots level to really understand it. Well, thank you for that answer and we appreciate what you're doing at your company. It's a a great model that I think others can follow. So, thank you again for that. Miss Burke Alfonso would like to hear from you about what you think the biggest barriers are to preventing employers from expanding their on-site child care. Is it cost, regulation, workforce for child care, a combination of those things? But would love to hear your answer there.
▶ 1:54:23Thank you. I think it's a combination of things. It's never just one thing. I think it's the the idea itself and really understanding the idea. I think it relates to space and what is the the right solution for their population. I think cost comes into play whether it's upfront cost or ongoing operational cost. Um and I think it's the time of actually thinking about it, making a decision and actually getting the child care center built.
▶ 1:54:51I also think um educating employers and understanding the indemnification bright horizons indemnifies employers. But I think when it comes to children and the health and safety of children and the risk of caring for children, making sure that employers understand what that is and who they partner with is really important for employers to get comfortable with.
▶ 1:55:12Well, in closing, just want to thank all of you again for being here today uh on this important topic of expanding affordable child care access for everybody across the country that wants uh to utilize that for them and their families. Such an important topic, not only again for those young children, but also uh for families who are looking to stay in the workforce. So, just want to thank you again. I'm sure uh there is no single answer to this. It's a multiaceted problem and we're going to look at all the different solutions that are presented today and hopefully continue to advance those in Congress. With that, I yield back.
▶ 1:55:42Thank you,
▶ 1:55:43Thanks very much. I now yield to the ranking member for a closing statement.
▶ 1:55:46Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for your testimony today. It's been an inspiring conversation. I look forward to continuing it. But I want to re return to the core truth that really guided this discussion and that's that child care is not a luxury. It's it is not an op option. It is essential. It is infrastructure for families, for employers, and for the economy. And we cannot continue to rely on a patchwork of solutions or expect that parents and businesses will absorb all the costs of a broken system.
▶ 1:56:15Nor can we pretend that voluntary efforts will meet the scale of a nationwide crisis that affects every sector of the economy. I I certainly appreciate the examples that we've heard today of successful employer-based approaches. I'm the daughter of a small business owner. I'm the mother of a small business owner. uh and really appreciate any suggestion that I don't appreciate the role of the private sector is is misguided. Uh certainly do and I applaud the businesses that are making it work. Uh but the private sector cannot solve this alone.
▶ 1:56:46Um, I actually have a large company in the district I represent that had an on-site uh program for about 30 years. And a few years ago, they closed it. And they closed it because they wanted to expand uh care not just to the people who worked at their site, but to other employees who are off-site. But that means you have to have accessible care offsite. It has to be there. And and it's a challenge. It continues to be a challenge. Uh we know that the status quo is failing children and families and hurting the economy.
▶ 1:57:16The child care development fund and development fund CCDF. It's the primary federal child care system and as a result of underinvestment, it only serves about 11% of the children who are eligible. Employers can help fill in that gap, but it cannot be the only solution. And then to make matters worse, the Trump administration is attacking the program, cutting off or slowing slowing down child care funding for families. It's going to have a disastrous implication for parents, children, and the economy.
▶ 1:57:46So real solutions require real leadership, and that means sustained public investment, strong accountability, and a commitment to making child care affordable for families, not just those who happen to work for a company that has on-site child care. It needs to be accessible in every community and also fair for the childare workers. If we want a workforce that will show up, grow and thrive, we must enact policies that make it families possible for families to do the same.
▶ 1:58:14Again, the child care for working families offer act offers a clear path that strengthens families but also supports providers and fuels economic growth. It's a challenge we can solve, but we must meet it with the seriousness it demands. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you very much. Thank you again to all our witnesses for your uh your excellent testimony.
▶ 1:58:34Uh we've now held two hearings on childare and the reason we're focusing on this so much is because not only is it so important to the well-being of of children and families of course, but it's a central aspect of the affordability or cost of living challenges that so many uh families are facing across the country. And we need to be focusing on every dimension of that from uh energy, electricity, uh gas prices, water prices, uh housing, groceries, taxes.
▶ 1:59:01Uh but alongside those things, uh child care is a big piece of many families uh budgets and far bigger uh than it needs to be. And it's not just a question of of affordability. Uh, you know, child care policy is also workforce policy, as we've heard from our witnesses today, that when you have accessible, affordable child care, it allows for uh parents to uh join the workforce, remain in the workforce, to uh remain full-time uh employees uh in the workforce, which of course increases their take-home wages and softens
▶ 1:59:32the blow of uh of the of the cost of living along all of these other uh dimensions. And then finally uh child care policy is is good economic policy because by having more people joining the workforce and being more productive uh that can supercharge GDP growth. So I am confident the recent changes we've seen uh to tax policy 45F uh can catalyze a large-scale expansion of the availability and affordability of childare in this country. But we need to implement the right way as we heard from our witnesses.
▶ 1:59:59So, our committee will be working uh with uh uh the IRS, with the administration to make sure that that's implemented in a way that can fully be capitalized on uh for businesses of all sizes across the country. And I appreciate the uh the the bipartisan interest in this topic today, the participation of all the members. Look forward to working with everyone on both sides of the day uh to improve the quality and availability and affordability of child care uh for folks across the country. Uh without objection, there being no further business, the committee stands