Rep. Katherine Clark On Hotly-Contested Infrastructure Bill: ‘Child Care Has To Be A Part Of This Package’

Assistant House Speaker Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) called in to Boston Public Radio on Friday, where she told hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan that she’s doing everything in her power to prioritize funding for child care in the House’s hotly-debated reconciliation package.

“Something as fundamental as child care? I don’t see us being able to just leave that off, or take it down to a number where it isn’t [having a] meaningful impact for families at home,” she said.

Slimming down the 10-year, $3.5 trillion bill has been a priority for congressional Democrats over the past few weeks, who need the support of their party’s more conservative members in order to get it through both chambers of Congress and onto President Joe Biden’s desk for signature.

Though negotiations are still ongoing, the full version of the bill includes investments of about $450 billion towards lowering child care costs and securing universal pre-kindergarten for three and four year-olds.

“Every dollar we invest in child care gives us at least seven dollars back,” Clark noted, because it allows parents to return to the labor force. She added, “If we want an economic recovery, if we want to build back better — and a more inclusive [plan] that includes women in particular — child care has to be a part of this package.”

The Assistant Speaker’s appearance on GBH News comes one week after a New York Times report revealed that wealthy nations throughout the world spend an average of $14,000 per resident on child care, compared to just $500 here in the U.S.

“We are an outlier,” Clark said. “And as much as we can bemoan that, this is our opportunity to change it. And this is something that we have known for a long time, that child care is an essential part of our economic infrastructure, as any road or bridge.”

She added, “and yet we’ve always sort of kicked this down the road — no infrastructure pun intended.”

President Biden appeared to share Clark’s sentiment during a Friday visit to a child care center in Connecticut.

“How can we compete in the world if millions of American parents, especially moms, can’t be part of the workforce because they can’t afford the cost of child care or eldercare?” he asked reporters.