April 29, 2020

Wyden Calls for $50 Billion Childcare Investment in Next COVID-19 Relief Package

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today called on Senate leadership to prioritize funding childcare in the next COVID-19 relief package. Wyden, along with 30 of his colleagues, also requested that the legislation ensures small businesses and nonprofits involved in caring for children receive support from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program.

“We write to strongly urge you to prioritize funding childcare in the next legislative package that responds to the public health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and emergency,” wrote Wyden and his colleagues in a letter to Senate leaders. “While the $3.5 billion for childcare included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was an important first step in helping to fund childcare for frontline healthcare workers and other essential employees, since its passage, we have only learned more about the extent of closures required by this pandemic and the dire situation that childcare providers are in, which necessitates additional relief. Accordingly, we urge you to provide at least $50 billion in emergency funding in order to stabilize the entire childcare industry, provide childcare for essential workers including healthcare workers, and invest in childcare for our long-term economic recovery.”

The letter to Senate leaders was also signed by Sens. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Robert P. Casey, Jr., D-Pa., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Edward Markey, D-Mass., Doug Jones, D-Ala., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Chris Coons, D-Del., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Mark Warner, D-Va.

A full copy of the letter can be found here.