Stop the Republican Affordability Crisis

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. ELFRETH. Mr. Speaker, we are taking up time on the floor today because, from coast to coast, I guarantee that we are all hearing the same message from our constituents: The cost of living is just too high.

I feel it, too, as the daughter of a single mom who made everything work because of access to affordable childcare, as a millennial with student loan debt that I am still years away from paying off, and as a first-time homeowner who finally was able to buy a house in the district that I represent after renting for over two decades.

This is something I believe everyone in this Chamber, Republicans and Democrats alike, can agree on: Congress must do more to cover the crushing costs of electric bills, groceries, prescription drugs, housing, and more.

While I would love to take a full hour today running through what we can and should do on all these crises, I have only a few minutes to focus on one.

Mr. Speaker, from my very first conversations 9 years ago, when I first asked my neighbors to place their trust in me to represent them, to even just this weekend at the grocery store, I have heard from parents, grandparents, and small businesses alike that the childcare crisis is suppressing our economy and forcing families to make impossible decisions.

It is more expensive to send one infant to daycare than it is to send an 18-year-old to the University of Maryland.

Like every State, Maryland saw devastating losses in childcare providers after the pandemic. We lost 15 percent, or 1,135, home-based childcare providers, and that further pressured the market and limited options for families.

I come to this floor with good news. I am proud to share that, in our State, education and nonprofit leaders are working to find innovative solutions to help families afford childcare through scholarships and tax credits, but also, and this is crucial, to grow the supply of childcare providers and create critically needed seats.

The Growing Opportunities for Family Child Care program has opened nearly 300 daycares, or 2,000 childcare slots, in just 3 years by providing training, coaching, and resources to individuals who happen to be almost entirely women-based businesses in opening and operating family care childcare businesses.

Now, this is a win-win-win. We create more jobs in childcare, allow more parents to enter the workforce, and lower the cost of care through increased supply.

As a Congress, we need to work together to find commonsense policies that will make it easier for our neighbors not just to get by but to get ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues to join me in tackling issues head-on together through difficult conversations as we seek to do the unfashionable thing here in Washington: find common ground. That is because that is the fundamental promise of our country: to be able to give our kids and the next generation a better life than we had. We can only do that by offering real, comprehensive, innovative solutions to the affordability crisis that families across this country are experiencing.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source