ICYMI: What Virginians Are Reading about Kaine’s Child Care for Working Families Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, along with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and help ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need. In Virginia, most families pay over $15,000 for infant care.
“I hear about the child care crisis everywhere I go in Virginia. Parents in every community are being locked out of the workforce because they can’t find affordable care for their kids, while critical workers who are passionate about child care are getting squeezed out of their field because of low wages. This issue is holding our families, workers, and economy back and it’s time for Congress to do more to address it,” said Kaine. “I’m proud to be fighting alongside Senator Murray and Congressman Scott for our legislation to help ensure that every family in America can get the child care they need. This bill will make child care more accessible and affordable, boost wages for child care workers, and put us on a path to universal pre-K.”
Read below for a sampling of the local coverage.
Virginian Pilot: Rep. Bobby Scott, Sen. Tim Kaine help reignite effort to overhaul child care for working families
Child care. Those two words continue to evoke a flurry of emotions for families everywhere, but especially working families.
In an effort to help quell some of the frustration and angst associated with child care, Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Bobby Scott backed reintroducing the Child Care for Working Families Act in Congress on April 27.
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During a news conference on April 27, the Democrat lawmakers said one aim of the bill is that no working family would pay more than 7% of their income on child care.
The 2022 estimated median cost of infant center-based care reached more than $13,000 a year for Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Database of Childcare Prices.
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The bill also aims to dramatically expand access to preschool and supports full-day, full-year Head Start programs along with increasing wages for those staff, Murray said.
Kaine said he hears three things when he travels throughout Virginia: the cost of child care, the low wages paid to child care workers and the difficulties employers have hiring workers.
“There are millions of Americans who are out of work for just the one simple reason: They can’t find affordable child care,” he said. “They’re skilled, energetic, productive, and employers need them in industries of all kinds … But if they can’t find affordable child care, they’re not in the workforce.”
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Jane Elyce Glasgow, executive director of Minus 9 to 5 and assistant professor of pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said the bill is a huge step in the right direction.
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CBS19: Kaine helps reintroduce Child Care for Working Families Act
WASHINGTON (CBS19 NEWS) -- The Child Care for Working Families Act, a piece of legislation that has been introduced in every Congress since 2017, was reintroduced again Thursday.
Senator Tim Kaine joined the reintroduction effort alongside 34 other co-sponsors.
The bill aims to make sure families across the country can find and afford child care, expand preschool programs, and raise wages for childcare workers.
Kaine, whose son is an early childhood educator, says many are leaving because of low pay.
"Nobody does child care to make money, but many stop doing it or never go into it because of money," he said.
According to a release, the cost of child care has increased by 220 percent over the last three decades. Kaine says this bill will help ease that number and benefit the economy as more people enter the workforce.
FOX Richmond: Fox Richmond Morning News
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, along with several other lawmakers is introducing a measure aimed at helping working families.
The bill’s intended to lower child care costs for families and raise wages for child care providers.
Kaine says the lack of affordable child care not only affects children and child care providers but employers as well because parents are being forced to leave the workforce to stay home with their kids.
Gray DC: Bill promises to lower childcare costs for families, increase pay for workers
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - As childcare centers across the nation have wait lists, staffing shortages, and rising costs, democratic Senators are reintroducing a bill that they believe will decrease the burden for families.
The Childcare for Working Families Act, backed by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), would cap family expenditures at 7% of their income. Lawmakers said that would cut costs to around $10 or less a day for most parents.
The bill would also expand access to Pre-K and Head Start programs in addition to increasing worker wages.
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Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is a co-sponsor of the bill. When asked if he thought Republicans would support it, he said “employers are saying ‘we can’t hire people. Unemployment rate is historically low. We can’t hire people.’ Well, one of the reasons is that you’ve got millions of people out of the workforce simply for the reason that they can’t find high quality, affordable childcare. And if they could, they’d bring their skills into the workforce. The economy would be more productive. These employers would have great workers. So I know my Republican colleagues are hearing the very same thing.”
Kaine added, most families want high quality workers to staff their daycares. Yet he said many childcare workers can’t make a living wage. Murray said her bill provides a solution for those workers.
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WAVY: Kaine promotes proposal for affordable, accessible childcare
VIRGINA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – During a visit to Naval Air Station Oceana this morning, Sen. Tim Kaine championed proposed legislation to make childcare more affordable for low- and middle-income families.
The Child Care for Working Families Act “would help ensure families can find and afford the child care they need, dramatically expand access to high-quality preschool programs, and boost wages for early childhood workers,” according to Kaine’s office.
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“That would be enormously beneficial to (a) low- to moderate-income family,” Kaine said.
Kaine said that the plan would also provide funds to childcare centers, which, he said, will result in higher wages for childcare providers.
He said that freeing up parents to leave the home and work would ameliorate workforce issues.
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WDBJ: WATCH: Senator Kaine, others lawmakers introduce Child Care for Working Families Act
ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Thursday, US Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined US Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) and other lawmakers to introduce legislation aimed at supporting child care for working families.
As a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Kaine participated in an afternoon news conference to explain the bill.
According to a statement from Kaine’s office, the bill is intended to lower child care costs for families and raise wages for child care providers.
During the press conference, Kaine said the lack of child care not only affects children and child care providers, but employers also.
“There are millions of Americans who are out of work for just the one simple reason they can’t find affordable childcare,” Kaine said. “They’re skilled, they’re energetic, they’re productive. Employers need him in industries of all kinds and communities of all kinds.”
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WDVM: DC News Now @ 9 PM
All new tonight: pay for day care or live off of one income. That is a dilemma so many households know all too well.
It’s why Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is pushing for legislation that would make child care more affordable for low- and average-income families. Kaine says the child care crisis is crippling the labor market.
“If somebody is doing their job, but they’re sort of not 100% sure that their kids are in a safe place that day, part of their mind is going to be on that instead of their job.”
Kaine is reintroducing the Child Care for Working Families Act. It aims to ease the burden on families by capping a family’s expenses of child care at 7% of their income. If families cannot find child care at that price, they’d be given subsidies to go to a federal program.
WSLS: Lawmakers introduce Child Care for Working Families Act
VIRGINIA – As working parents and child care facilities struggle nationwide, national lawmakers are hoping to fix some of today’s biggest challenges in the industry.
Whether that’s making child care affordable, expanding options, and supporting higher wages for child care workers.
On Thursday, lawmakers introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, something they say is sorely needed.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine is a co-sponsor of the bill.
“Infant care in Virginia averages about $15,000 per infant, a little bit cheaper for older kids, but so many families can’t afford it,” Kaine said. “Even if they could they can’t find it because they live in parts of the state where we don’t have providers especially after COVID.”
The proposal would cap child care costs for families to no more than seven percent of their income.
WVEC: Working to improve availability and affordability of child care in U.S.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When it comes to child care, there is a national security component. If troops are worried about their kids, they're not focused on their mission. With more than 76,000 children enrolled, the Department of Defense operates the largest employer-sponsored childcare program in the U.S. But accessibility and affordability remain challenges for them, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) met Monday with Navy parents at Naval Air Station Oceana whose children are enrolled in Navy child care. They're very pleased, but they spoke about what it was like when they were on the waiting list, which today at stands 1,400.
"One of the sailors said, 'I have to be really good at my job. If part of my mind is on, I don't think my kid is in a safe place today, I'm not focused on my job,'" he said.
Kaine believes his "Child Care for Working Families Act" can help.
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Improving civilian child care would give military families more options.
"There is no one answer to this. What you need to do is expand child development centers on bases, but also provide more resources for child care in the community," he said.
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WVIR: Senator Kaine leading legislative push for cheaper child care
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Virginia Senator Tim Kaine pushing a new plan for cheaper child care to help working parents.
The Child Care for Working Families Act would lower child care costs for families and also raise wages for child care providers.
Kaine says this bill has an economic layer to it too, as he thinks more people would be willing to go back to work if they could afford child care.
“We would guarantee that no family would pay more than 7% of its income for childcare. And so if you if you get childcare, and it costs more than that, we would cover that difference so that no one would have to pay more than 7%, and that would be a huge benefit,” he said.
WVNS: Senator Kaine speaks about the Child Care for Working Families Act
RICHMOND, VA (WVNS) — Recently, Senator Tim Kaine spoke about the Child Care for Working Families Act, which combats the childcare crisis and ensures families can find and afford the child care they need.
If the legislation passes, according to kaine.senate.gov, families would be able to afford child care, have more options to high-quality child care, and help childcare workers get paid better livable wages for their hard work.
“In this bill, we would guarantee that no family would pay more than seven percent of its income for child care. If you get child care and it costs more than that, we would cover that difference so that no one would have to pay more than seven percent,” said Senator Kaine.
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WWBT: 12 News Before Noon
Well, a new bill before Congress may help working families. Listen to this.
U.S. Senator and former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, along with several other lawmakers, introduced a measure this week. The bill is intended to lower child care costs for families and raise wages for child care providers.
Now, Kaine says the lack of affordable child care not only affects children and child care providers but employers also because parents are being forced to leave the workforce to stay home with their kids.
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