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Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I am here to join my colleagues because, across the country, working families are facing an impossible choice that is created by the lack of access to childcare.

Even before the COVID pandemic, families in my home State of New Hampshire and elsewhere have struggled to access affordable childcare, and they were often faced with shortages of available childcare slots. The pandemic exacerbated these challenges and caused childcare centers across the Granite State to close. That forced countless families to scramble for alternatives.

The closure of a childcare provider can result in higher costs for families, and in New England, we already pay some of the highest costs for childcare in the country. They can also require parents to leave the workforce altogether.

Since 2019, New Hampshire has lost nearly 1,500 childcare slots, as dozens of childcare centers have closed their doors. I have visited some of those centers from across my State--from Littleton, in the northern part of New Hampshire, to Rochester, down on the Maine border, to Manchester, our largest city, and over in the west to Keene. I have seen those closed classrooms and strained facilities in every corner of the Granite State.

In October of 2020, New Hampshire had only half of the licensed capacity necessary to serve children under the age of 6 who needed care--only half of the required slots for care. And in just one of our counties, Coos County, which is the northernmost county of the State and borders Canada, three childcare centers have closed since January of this year.

Like all of my colleagues on the floor, we worked to deliver more than $50 billion in Federal funding for childcare during the pandemic. This is funding that was critical for allowing providers to keep their doors open, to improve childcare affordability and expand access, to increase wages for childcare workers, and to build a supply of childcare in States like New Hampshire. Now, with that relief funding running out, childcare providers are again facing an existential crisis.

Congress intentionally designed childcare relief during the pandemic to accomplish two goals: first, to provide direct relief to providers to stabilize the sector; and, second, to provide States with the resources to make long-term investments to try and address childcare availability.

Now, I am disappointed to say that in my State of New Hampshire, they delayed the distribution of that long-term funding stream, which made the last 2 years unnecessarily burdensome for families and childcare providers across New Hampshire. In fact, I am hearing from providers who are in desperate need of additional support to avoid closing classrooms.

So I am really pleased that the President included $16 billion for support for childcare in his domestic supplemental appropriations request to Congress, and we need to act as soon as possible to provide this critical funding.

We have got to act to stabilize not just the childcare industry that our families and workforce and communities rely on, but this is vital for our economy as a whole. Right now, the repercussions of the childcare crisis are being felt across every sector of our economy. I have heard from every industry in New Hampshire--manufacturing, healthcare, nonprofits, tourism--that the childcare crisis has hamstrung their ability to continue to grow their operations.

Over the summer, I traveled up to Coos County, that northernmost county of New Hampshire. I heard from parents and from one family, and a man named Michael, whose son's childcare center has recently closed. At the time of the closure, the nearest center with any open slots for him and his wife to be able to place their son was more than an hour away. That left Michael and his wife, like many families across the State, struggling to do their best to keep their jobs without local, reliable childcare. And where they live, their community can't afford for Michael or his wife, who is a critical healthcare worker, to leave the workforce.

New Hampshire's families should not have to choose between their children and their jobs, and New Hampshire's businesses should not have to face additional struggles to find qualified workers.

Families across America are relying on us--all of us here in Congress--to help childcare providers stay open and to provide affordable care options. This Federal funding would improve their lives while boosting our economy by helping parents keep their jobs or return to work.

I appreciate all of those who are here on the floor today, and everyone who is supporting additional funding, for speaking out to make sure that we try and do something as soon as possible to help the families who are in need.

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