Burr, Senators Call for Senate Appropriations Committee to Double CCDBG Funding in Five Years

Press Release

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), along with Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Todd Young (R-IN), sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services (HHS), Education, and Related Agencies Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Roy Blunt (R-MO) urging the Subcommittee to prioritize Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funding in the upcoming consideration of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill and put the program on a path to double in funding in five years.

In their letter, the Senators underscored the success of the CCDBG framework in keeping child care programs open for families during the height of the pandemic.

"Of the many funding priorities before your subcommittee, there are few as crucial to America's working families as child care assistance provided through CCDBG," wrote the Senators.

"These past two years have crystallized the direct link between child care and parent employment. Throughout the entire pandemic, child care stayed open. Child care providers around the country implemented numerous enhanced health and safety protocols that by and large, even in the absence of vaccines, kept children and staff safe," continued the Senators. "CCDBG proved itself to be the exact right architecture for delivering federal child care assistance during the pandemic."

The Senators concluded, "Child care is indispensable for America's working families as well as for the greater U.S. economy. Placing CCDBG on a path, starting with the FY2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, to double in funding in five years would allow states to continue and improve upon the many enhancements they made to their CCDBG programs during the pandemic to better serve families, children, teachers, and providers."

To read the full letter, click here.

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