On Capitol Hill, Democrats have introduced legislation to provide $16 billion in emergency child care funds annually for the next five years. This comes just two weeks before billions of dollars in pandemic-era funding for daycares is set to expire — potentially forcing tens of thousands of child care programs to shut down, impacting over 3 million children. Senator Patty Murray co-authored the bill.

Sen. Patty Murray: “We have a child care crisis in America. And that crisis could soon go from bad to worse as essential relief for the sector expires at the end of this month. So we are here today to sound the alarm and put forward a commonsense solution, before child care providers might have to close their doors, before kids lose their child care slots, and before parents face higher costs or simply be forced to leave their jobs to take care of their kids.”