Sherrill Leads House Efforts to Extend Critical Child Care Funding and Bring Costs Down for New Jersey Families

Supplemental Funding Would Bring Back $300 Million to New Jersey and Strengthen Economy and Workforce 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) continued her charge to extend critical federal stabilization funding to help New Jersey child care centers keep their doors open and costs down for families, after House Republicans let federal funding expire earlier this year. Sherrill co-led a letter to House leadership urging swift action, which brought along more than 150 members of the House. 

“The child care stabilization relief funds provided a much-needed lifeline to the child care industry, but it is crucial that, at minimum, we sustain that level of investment to ensure the industry’s survival and prevent a new emergency. Our providers, workers, children, and families need your help. We urge you to utilize every possible tool to provide a robust investment to address the growing child care crisis,” the members wrote.

A one year extension of this funding, as requested in President Biden’s supplemental request, would bring back more than $300 million in federal tax dollars to New Jersey to keep centers open and costs down for families. Experts estimate that without federal action, child care centers across the country could be forced to close their doors. In New Jersey, more than 1,000 child care centers are expected to close and more than 100,000 children could lose their child care. Parents without affordable child care options will also shoulder the consequences, forced to reduce work hours or drop out of the workforce entirely. A loss of this federal funding would result in $453 million less in employer productivity and Garden State families will lose nearly $400 million in earnings. 

Sherrill has fought tirelessly to avert the funding cliff and to bring down the cost of child care for New Jersey families. Before the funding expired, she introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act, which will extend critical federal grants to child care facilities in New Jersey and across the country. This legislation was endorsed by child care advocates and business groups alike. 

Earlier this year, she convened a panel of parents, providers, and business leaders to discuss the need to bring down the cost of childcare, hosted a roundtable with parents at the YMCA of Montclair about their childcare experiences, and visited Head Start Community Program of Morris County to discuss how funding cuts could impact their services. She has also introduced the Child Care for Every Community Act — which is modeled after Head Start and the military’s child care program. The bill would ensure that no family has to pay more than seven percent of their income toward child care expenses.

You can read the letter here and below. The Senate letter can be found here.  

Dear Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, Chairwoman Granger, and Ranking Member DeLauro:

We write today to urge you to include robust funding for child care in any supplemental funding package considered by the Appropriations Committee. Child care is unaffordable and hard to find for working families, and child care providers across the country are struggling to stay afloat. We are extremely concerned that this crisis will continue to worsen following the expiration of the Child Care Stabilization Grants provided under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This vital funding sustained an estimated 220,000 child care providers, saved an estimated 9.6 million child care slots, and maintained more than 1 million child care jobs. President Biden acknowledged this urgent issue by requesting significant funding for child care in his domestic supplemental appropriations request to Congress.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress took important steps to protect the child care industry from collapse by delivering historic funding in the economic relief packages passed. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) with $3.5 billion, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act provided $10 billion in dedicated relief, and ARPA provided $15 billion for CCDBG and $24 billion for the stabilization grants. On September 30, 2023, the majority of this vital funding expired.

Prior to the pandemic, the child care system was already in a crisis. In 2018, over 50 percent of counties in the United States were considered a child care desert – an area in which the demand for child care is far more than the supply. The broken child care market has resulted in an impossible tension between families, workers, and providers: child care providers cannot afford to run their businesses or pay adequate wages to their staff using revenue from parents alone, while child care costs are unaffordable and unsustainable for working families. For years, the situation has been far worse for families with low incomes, families of color, families seeking infant and toddler care, care for children with disabilities, and care during non-traditional hours.

The child care workforce has been one of the slowest sectors to recover from the pandemic, and wages for this critical workforce remain unacceptably low, further fueling the shortage of available child care options for families. As of September 2023, the child care industry was missing more than 38,400 workers compared to pre-pandemic levels. At the rate that child care jobs have been regained in 2023 so far, it could take almost 12 months—until September 2024—for the child care sector to recover pandemic-related job losses. This threatens America’s economic stability and competitiveness. It is estimated that the lack of child care costs our economy $122 billion in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue annually.

Families and child care providers are feeling increasingly squeezed following the expiration of COVID-19 relief funding for child care, as child care providers scramble to fill the gap in resources previously filled by federal funds. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that child care prices increased 1.7% in September 2023, while the Consumer Price Index for all items rose by only 0.2% over the same period. Child care providers in communities across the country are at risk of closure. Already, local news outlets are sharing stories about communities losing child care providers as 43 in Kansas and seven programs serving 300 children in North Carolina have closed following the loss of pandemic-era funding and supports.

Through continued bipartisan support, the FY 2023 appropriations process yielded a total of $8 billion for CCDBG. This is a 30 percent increase from fiscal year 2022 funding. However, we understand that you are limited on discretionary spending with the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act in June. So, it is essential that as supplemental funding to meet emergency needs is considered, Congress take action to address the child care crisis. We have an urgent need to further stabilize an industry that has been long underfunded, and Congress must provide robust funding for this sector through a supplemental package.

The child care stabilization relief funds provided a much-needed lifeline to the child care industry, but it is crucial that, at minimum, we sustain that level of investment to ensure the industry’s survival and prevent a new emergency. Our providers, workers, children, and families need your help. We urge you to utilize every possible tool to provide a robust investment to address the growing child care crisis. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

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