Today, Congressman Rick W. Allen (GA-12), a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, spoke during debate on the House floor in opposition to H.R. 7027, an overreaching, partisan proposal that would hinder working families who need access to child care. The House passed H.R. 7027 249 to 163. Congressman Allen’s remarks can be found below.
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As our nation continues to respond, recover and reopen our economy following the outbreak of COVID-19, we can all agree that child care is necessary in getting Americans back to work.
No parent will return to work if they do not have a safe place to send their child, which is another reason why schools safely reopening should be a priority for my Democrat colleagues.
However, Democrats are pushing a partisan proposal that carelessly overspends taxpayer dollars and further burdens our child care providers - who already face bureaucratic red tape - with more mandates, like overly extensive application requirements that will cost them more time and money when their time is better spent caring for our children!
These mandates will prevent new providers from entering the industry, ultimately increasing costs and limiting the amount of available slots for children.
This again is a one-size-fits-all, top-down government mandate.
How much of this money will actually go toward taking care of a child?
H.R. 7027 appropriates $50 billion, which is higher than the entire annual revenue of the child care industry, and twice the amount that the Bipartisan Policy Center estimated the industry would need.
Is it going to cost another $25 billion to administer this thing with all the burdensome red tape that goes along with it?
Once again, the Democrats solution is more government control, more regulation, and more taxpayer dollars with burdensome strings attached.
When are the American people going to wake up?
It denies support for certain eligible providers, such as churches and public recreation camps, who are license-exempt and operating legally in a state that meet all state and local requirements.
I’m disappointed that rather than finding common ground, my colleagues across the aisle are moving forward with a bill that will only hurt families who want to return to work and need access to child care.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill and let’s all go back to the drawing board so that we can support working families.
