Child care advocates are pushing for $16 billion supplemental funding as members of Congress push for a variety of priorities to be included in an emergency package expected later this year.
Both Democratic appropriations leaders — Senate chair Patty Murray, D-Wash. and the House panel’s ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. — are longtime supporters of child care subsidies.
DeLauro in a statement Wednesday called for more money and criticized House Republicans for proposing to cut the Department of Health and Human Services’ early childhood education program Head Start, eliminate an Education Department program that provides child care at campuses and keep Child Care and Development Block Grant funding steady in fiscal 2024.