Senator Murray Affirms Senate Democrats’ Commitment to Delivering Affordable Child Care, Blasts Trump for Child Care Sabotage

Murray: "Trump says we can't afford child care. The truth is we can't afford to ignore child care."

Murray is a former preschool teacher and parent activist who has always fought to make child care a top Congressional priority

***VIDEO of Murray's Remarks HERE***

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) , Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) at a press conference highlighting how Trump and Republicans have undermined access to child care and announcing the release of Senate Democrats' new vision to lower costs and deliver child care for every American family.

"When I go back home there is not a single parent saying, 'What I really want-is higher prices and more war mongering.' That may seem fine to an out-of-touch billionaire like Trump but working families don't 'love' inflation. Instead, the issue that comes up the most is no surprise to any parent: It's child care. Trump's latest budget short changes child care, while blowing up war spending," said Senator Murray. "Trump says we can't afford child care. The truth is we can't afford to ignore child care. This year, Senator Warren and I announced our Child Care for America Working Group-a coalition dedicated to lowering costs and delivering affordable and accessible high quality child care for all families across the country. Now, we're making this a central focus of our caucus's long-term affordability agenda with Leader Schumer. This is a priority for families-so Democrats will make it a priority in Congress."

Senators Murray and Warren announced the launch of a new Child Care for America Working Group in March. Murray is a former preschool teacher who has always been passionate about fighting for kids and families. When local officials planned to close her kids' preschool program due to state budget cuts, Senator Murray packed up her two young children and went to Olympia to urge her state representatives to save the preschool program. While there, one male legislator told her she couldn't make a difference because she was "just a mom in tennis shoes." In response, Senator Murray organized a grassroots coalition of 13,000 parents that fought successfully to save the preschool program. When Murray was elected to the Senate in 1992, she was one of the only working moms with young children to serve in Congress.

Senator Murray is the author of the Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to address the child care crisis, cosponsored by 44 Senators.

As then Chair of the HELP Committee, Murray also helped write the American Rescue Plan where she pushed Congress to take action and deliver the largest ever one time investment in child care to date, this funding was widely credited with saving a fraying national child care system from collapse.

Over the last ten years as a top appropriator, Murray has led efforts in Congress to more than triple funding for CCDBG. A cumulative $31 billion more has been provided for CCDBG than if funding had just kept pace with inflation over that same period. Every single year for the last decade essentially, Murray has made sure there is at least a modest increase in federal child care funding.

Senator Murray has pressed to deliver investments in child care across government. She founded the VA child care pilot program and continues to fund and expand the pilot, she consistently ensures funding for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, which helps low-income parents pursue a higher education by supporting campus-based child care programs, she has worked to greatly expand DOD's child care initiatives and to build child care centers on military installations to support military families, and more-she has even worked to expand child care options for Congressional staff on capitol hill.

Senator Murray's remarks, as delivered, are below:

"While President Trump's top priorities are-shockingly-$1.5 trillion in war spending and a golden ballroom. Those are not the priorities that American families are focused on.

"When I go back home-there is not a single parent saying, 'What I really want-is higher prices and more war mongering.' That may seem fine to an out-of-touch billionaire like Trump but working families don't 'love' inflation.

"Instead, the issue that comes up the most is no surprise to any parent: It's child care. In fact, eighty percent of voters say child care is a major problem.

"This is at the beating heart of our economy. If mom and dad don't have someone to look after their kid-mom and dad can't go to work!

"But nearly half of the kids in this country live in a child care desert.

"Maybe you can find a slot-if you drive an hour. But first you have to pay to get on the wait list, then you have to hope you get off the wait list, and finally you have to hope you can afford it!

"No small task when, in many states, child care is more expensive than college tuition. And child care providers face a whole different mess of problems. They were already stretching to make budgets work and retain employees in a field with high turnover.

"But margins have only gotten tighter as Trump's policies squeeze budgets and raise costs.

"Now I was shocked to see President Trump say so openly that he believes: 'we can't afford child care-we have to pay for war.' But I already knew President Trump was badly out of touch on child care. I mean, just look at his policies!

"Trump's first month in office he froze funding for Head Start until outcry from parents forced him to backtrack. Then he fired staff at the Office of Head Start and the Office of Child care.

"His first leaked budget actually proposed eliminating Head Start. His latest budget still short changes child care-while blowing up war spending. And a new Trump regulation ended a cap on child care costs.

"There are states where families spend over a quarter of their income on child care. If Trump had simply done nothing, and left the 7 percent cap in place, some of these families would have ended up saving $15,000 a year. But our billionaire President has just never seen a price he didn't want to raise.

"Well, while President Trump is focused on raising costs, Democrats are focused on helping moms and dads who are raising their children. A lot of us have been working on this for years, I've championed child care since my first day in politics! And we are going to be working together to chart a path forward to ensure every family in America can get quality child care.

"Trump says we can't afford child care. The truth is we can't afford to ignore child care.

"This year, Senator Warren and I announced our Child Care for America Working Group-a coalition dedicated to lowering costs and delivering affordable and accessible high quality child care for ALL families across the country.

"Now, we're making this a central focus of our caucus's long-term affordability agenda with Leader Schumer. This is a priority for families-so Democrats will make it a priority in Congress."

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