Notwithstanding the success from many across the country based on the survey of adults between the ages of 20 to 45 of parent 45 n for those who plan to be expected during the lifetime they would have fewer children than they considered to be within their range of ideal. Economic concerns were foremost on the reasons over the past few years the joint economic committees social Capital Project has been documenting trying us in what we refer to as the association that is the web of social relationships for which we as americans pursue various and diverse. Families, communities, friendships, religious congregation is for example. The critical source of meaning and social capital is of course the family in fact the central headwaters for the social connected us generally. Thats why two of the projects policy objectives are making it affordable has become a unifying concern among lawmakers and policymakers and commentators of both the political right in the politicaand thepolitical left an between it is very as declining fertility rates increases in the cost of child care and housing, paid family leave and student debt burdens. Motivating this is a simple statement it should not be this hard to raise a family economic challenges such as increases in the cost of living the family formation and expansion difficult for Many Americans that often leads to too little time to spend with them at least then they would prefer. Americans who might prefer something closer to a single breadwinner family for other expenses that are by the dual earner households and growing ranks of Single Parents are hampered by the correspondingly high property race the answer to hell did we get here is complicated. The first step must be to adequately diagnose the problems facing our families. What fuels the rising cost of health care, child care, education and housing. How many are hindered in the Student Loan Debt and and adequate income are there ways to increase the flexibility that are minimally disruptive to employers which of those can be reformed and how can we make it fair to those that bear the cost of our panelists today discuss some of these topics in more and i look forward to the testimony and productive conversation helping parents and strengthening our families and now bracket as the vice chair thank you for calling this hearing nothing is more important than our families and thank you for shining a spotlight on the challenges facing American Families. Billions of americamillions of s are working longer and harder not to get ahead but just to stay in place. But cost of childcare and otherr necessities for families have grown most rely on two incomes just to make ends meet because thats what it takes to support an American Family today, nearly 40 of American Adults report they have trouble paying for at least one basic need like food, healthcare, housing or utility. Its no brighter when you look at the specific costs. Take childcare. The average cost is more than one quarter of the Median Household Income for single working parent. That means those who need child care the most cant afford it or look at College Education which is almost a necessity in todays economy. I would say it is a necessity but since the 1980s the average cost of a fulltime undergraduate degree has more than tripled for public and private institutions. Todays typical graduation leaves 30,000 in debt or look at housing. They are higher than ever and often out of reach. And over one third of the renters spent more than 30 of their overall income on rent. How are they responding to stagnant wages and growing cost by taking on debt, Consumer Debt excluding mortgages is now 4 trillion, the highest level ever. Folks are also putting off Home Ownership can deprive them of the key source of accumulation. Everyone in the room agrees that its more expensive than ever to raise a family, but we may disagree about the cause and develop a solution. I welcome the robust discussion the committee provides for women in the workforce is not a problem we may hear that they got married was frequently as women took on careers that women have become key drivers of the economic success and boosted the economy by trillions of dollars and are critical to the American Families. The Household Earnings increased from 36 and could do even more if we made it easier to enter and stay in the workplace and have more flexibility as the chairman mentioned. There are two key overwhelming popular ways to do that, offer child care and paid leave for the birth of a child in for work lets take a lesson from others that provide the services that have significantly higher Labor Force Participation and while we are added, lets make sure women are paid fairly so they have strong incentives to work on average a Woman Working fulltime burdens he of her male counterparts at th of the e for black and Hispanic Women its far worse, far too many the American Dream is slipping away or is completely out of reach. Some would say the solution is for the federal government could do nothing. I disagree it has a key role helping to restore that dream. What can it do, lets start by looking at minimum wage. The house passed legislation to raise. Its time for the senate to follow suit. We should expand programs and initiatives that we know work like the earned income tax credit and Child Tax Credit. The substantially increased employment on single mothers and reduce poverty levels for their families. We should make the Child Tax Credit fully refundable to allow the poorest families to receive the full benefit. The working families tax relief act that extends both would benefit 49 million including 2. 7 million for my home state of new york and we should strengthen the Supplemental Assistance Program in not only provides a Healthy Foundation but its also an investment in the economy. Every dollar generates more than 1. 5 and we should join the rest of the world in paid leave for the birth of a child nearly two countries in the worl world to provide paid leave for the birth of a child. America and new guinea. My bill which was included in the National Defense authorization act that passed the house this summer is a good start. With 512 weeks of paid leave in a model for the rest of the country to follow after the birth or adoption of a child or care for a Family Member that has a serious illness. Raising a family is hard and rewarding work and we need to do more to provide workers with the tools to balance work and Family Responsibilities like appreciate the chairmans statement on flexible time and how that would be helpful for families. Todays hearing and witnesses testimony will shed light on the actions we can take to make raising a family more affordab affordable. Its important for the future of america and American Families and the American Dream. Thank you vice chair. Id like to address a couple of housekeeping matters. This is a joint committee of both members of the house of representatives and the senate as the states would have if both the senate and house of representatives decided to call votes in the middle of the hearing so you may see members of the house and the senate leaving and coming back. We will be here every bit of time we possibly can. I didnt want people to be alarmed leasehold unfaltering in and out. I would like to introduce the witnesses now. First we have mr. Stone, adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise institute and Research Fellow at the institute for family studies. He is right about migration and Population Dynamics and regional economics in his work has been covered in the New York Times, washington post, the journal and other outlets. Welcome. We have mr. Rya prayer to his re at cato, he was the head of Public Policy at the institute of Economic Affairs and head of Economic Research at the center for policy studies in the uk. He has written on a number of Economic Issues such as fiscal policy and equality, minimum wages and rent control and has appeared on bbc news, cnn and sky news. He writes weekly columns for the Daily Telegraph of london paper. Thank you for being with us. Next we have the centennial professor and youth problems at Columbia University school of social work and codirector of the columbia Population Research center. Written extensively on the impact of Public Policy on the wellbeing of children and families into the work has focused on more family policies and equality in Early Childhood care and education, poverty, social mobility and the black and white achievement gap and shes the author of eight books and has published numerous articles and reviewed academic journals. Welcome, doctor waldfogel. And we have ms. Kristin, executive director and cofounder of an Organization Called roms rising. Involved in Public Policy and grassroots engagement for over two decades and has received numerous awards for her work and is an awardwinning author of books and articles and frequent public speaker in the media contributor and host of the Radio Program breaking through the way thank all of you for joining us today and we look forward to hearing your testimony and we will now hear from you in the order in which you were introduced. Go ahead, mr. Stone. Hit the button until it turns red. It is an honor to be here. Thank you for inviting me, mr. Chairman and mr. Vice chairman. Its an honor to be here to testify on topics important to American Families. Im affiliated with the Enterprise Institute for family studies however, for my testimony today they are my own and most discusses fairly concrete questions of family affordability. A child rearing in america isnt really that much more expensive than in the past. Some elements have gotten more expensive but the evidence suggests the problems facing families couldnt simply be a budget crunch. The average American Woman says she wants to have about 2. 3 to 2. 5 tour debuted for children. Its been stable for 30 years and yet if current birthrates hold the average young American Woman today will only end up having about 1. 7. That means for every ten in america there will be about six missing children. This is a new problem from 1990 to 2007 the fertility gap was consistently just one third as large as to whats going on instead of affordability we should be discussing the chief ability. What is Holding People back from having a family they reliably say they want in surveys. The answer is basically marria marriage. Increasingly postponed marriage in california at least half of the increase in the fertility gap over the last decade and 100 of the increase since 2000. Incentivizing is a tricky question in this society. Americans are justifiably uncomfortable being lectured by anyone especially the federal government but luckily there are some good policy options available. First of all it has t all saidl government already has a marriage policy. Policy. In this policy is this. Workingclass people should get married. But middleclass and wealthy people should. This is the policy stance of the tax code, the welfare programs, almost everything the government does. The tax code gives you a handy marriage bonus if you have a ceo and their spouse is unlikely to earn an equivalent amount they are the greatest benefit to families with the most lopsided disposal incomes but if you give the eit see getting married to reduce your benefits by thousands of dollars. There is a real tax in my written testimony i show how the marriage bill came up to 15 or even 25 of the familys income it isnt per se but the eligibility rules. The result is neighborhoods with scattered families come inconsistent folders overworked mothers and diminished opportunity for children and fewer kids overall the marriage first exploration of the achievement is to reconsider our justification for policies like the Child Tax Credit. The justifications of the Child Tax Credit is not the parents are inherently cashstrapped, but rather parenting is inherently valuable to society. In other words, we should have a parenting wage because parenting is important work and workers deserve to be paid. How we provide such may vary but we as a society should treat parents more generously than we presently do. And in a way that explicitly communicates to the present that we see parenting as worthy. When societies provide a parenting wage, the fertility gap shrinks. Now, if there is also a change in the marriage and norms of behavior, fertility rates will rise by a lofgren is the best strategy is a onetwo punch. For family of chief ability to improve in america, despite the penalties for the working class while number two, increasing or social connected to th commitmef parenting by providing a parenting wage. And whatever happens to fertility rates, the children who are born are born into a society with greater opportunity, healthier families which engages in a valuable public. Her into the matters. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. To take 57 percent of it spending toward shelter and food and clothing alone the average family with Young Children locates 53 percent per any meaningful analysis of a family of four looking at the prices childcare affordability is given the Family Budget high housing and childcare prices necessitate corrective Government Intervention and price controls and subsidies but in both markets with regulations actively constrained supply extensive Academic Work show those new constraining in major cities as the housing for demand rises and drives up the housing services. In the tyrants and mortgage payments. It is a state level regulation and qualification requirements which reduces the supply of Child Centers in poor areas driving up prices. The same part of Government Policies the federal Sugar Program with the national mandates raise the price of family groceries. Foodstamp regulations and the leadership was in fact one inflected driving. And with the footwear prices and stay occupational license create barriers to entry from hair braiding to dentistry. With between seven and 30 percent of the aftertax income. Nor is that list comprehensive in those regulatory actions. And it also doesnt consider indirect cost. For example the elevating housing cost to make it more physically and financially difficult to access jobs and higher wages. And those that could benefit for families considerably. With the staff to child ratio could reduce childcare prices by 10 percent or more. To address those high prices for risky rent control measures and Affordable Housing at a higher minimum wage government subsidized childcare and the new tax credits for standard allowances. So before proposing new or expanded programs we should acknowledge the leaders that already exist to a family affordability. These regulatory changes would not require more federal borrowing or the risk associated with wage and price control. It may not be the full challenge but before reaching for new programs and regulation we should attempt to undo the harm of existing interventions. [inaudible conversations] we should make that clear to our colleagues. Thank you for being here today. Having come in late please continue your testimony. Go right ahead. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. Over the past 25 years setting policies to support families especially for the 11. 5 million children in poverty in the 27 million and with those anti poverty affects that congress has been enacted it makes it clear that the four. 5 million children moved out poverty. And then to improve child health. But income poverty is not the only challenge that they face. Since 2012 since the Robin Hood Foundation our group finds that poverty is the tip of the iceberg of one. 6 million new yorkers over four. 4 million face Material Hardship or challenges. And then to support American Families we need to document that they were not with this reality the family medical leave act and federal childcare subsidies only reach 11 percent. Employer policies looking for more advantage employees while they have access are those who are low income and for those to pay for child care. But we know from research these policies matter. And mothers are less likely to be depressed. Fathers are more likely to be engaged in caring for children. Opinion surveys show americans favor paid family leave on family and medical leave. My colleagues and i have been serving including small employers and in three states with pay and leave laws we found two thirds of employers were supportive and childcare is extensive and clear to help the Cognitive Development and social development especially for disadvantaged children. Especially in Early Childhood. So they were more likely to be employed with family stability the estimate suggests that childcare could reduce poverty by one third among families looking for child care. But knowing what the government can do those like snap but they also need cash and to pay rent and utilities. They have some form of child allowance or child benefit more frequently to all families with children. And to have the biggest impact those who earn too little to have their first Child Tax Credit of 2000 per child that were authorized under the recent child tax cut that recovery includes half of Young Children while there is ample evidence of these policies like the eitc thai time we join our peers to have paid family medical leave with universal child allowance and child on family childcare. Thank you members with over a million members we are on the frontlines of the crisis. Experts agree that have dire consequences. That the policies are woefully out of date and families are suffering as a result. To boost families in the economy those with all types of families the situation is urgent and those that experience this crisis each day and then if they could not afford child care. Until they started to get snap they often had to go without healthy food nobody let alone Holding Multiple Jobs should struggle to put food on the table but too many for one out of six children with food insecure households jamie is not alone one out of three households now pay more than 30 percent of income for housing and more than half are ventures now exceeds 1 trillion and childcare with black and latino families spend more of their income than anyone else. With child care and housing cost they live with her parents to try to save money and that productivity would be rising that wealth inequality is increasing and most people raising children in america are facing a financial crunch. Women are paid 80 cents on the mans dollar and moms experienced increased wage discrimination 71 cents to the dads dollar. To show a direct correlation between high levels of women in corporate leadership and higher profits women became half of the labor force and three quarters of the moms and they are the primary bread bidders. So women are not paid fairly the entire economy suffers. To go into the 21st century with the modern labor force and updates to the outdated policies and then policy changes could solve these issues. It with the paid equity. When this many people have the same problem at the same time it isnt an epidemic of personal failing but a national structural issue. We need to move quickly to pass the family active paid family medical leave the working families tax relief tact the paycheck fairness act and the maternal care act in the moms act with the Racial Disparities that drive it. The Healthy Families act and we also need to raise the federal minimum wage to make sure everybody has access to invest in children and families headstart and medicaid. All of which invest funds into the economy. These policies work for families to date on deliver significant returns for every dollar invested in childcare a return of investment of nine dollars. You cannot find returns i got anyplace else. With the outdated policies we can and must make it more affordable to raise a family in america and together we will make that happen. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony today. Both in the house and Senate Either chairman the will be back to take over the gavel depending on how long that takes. So are you familiar with the two generation approach to reduce intergenerational poverty and to take those federal policies that already exist but to better coordinate to support the families and the emergence. A very Successful Program underway directed by one of my colleagues. Its a winwin to take Early Childhood on childhood Education Programs and matching those and tying those to programs but also in the health care sector. I know from research of parents are involved their children do better in school and preschool and they will do better if the parents are employed with more stable resources. We dont do enough thinking across programs and its a promising model. I know that is new mexico seeing groups like united way to put the pieces together to support the family. With some very positive outcomes with liberal and conservative states with politically different governments have success with this approach. And if i introduce legislation i hope to continue to push. One of the other challenges in my state and this is becoming an issue all across the country in new mexico 10 percent of children are being raised by grandparents. Historically extended families have been a part of our culture with access to our communities. And where the Family Member is the direct chair on childcare provider. And if they have access to fmla only 15 percent have access to federal childcare subsidies. That is for those who are entitled grandparents are boxed out entirely. But the grandparents are not even in the lottery so its too heartbreaking to take on the screen children so under the fmla there is a lot of debate but for sure we are including grandparents. And with that eitc. They are literally into their retirement years with fixed incomes to have the incredible burdens. I want to ask you a little bit to expand on how paid family leave impacts the presence of other caregivers and what impact comes from that. Access to paid family medical leave is a win win win. It is a true policy to give a standing ovation. Because access to paid family leave because then we see the wage gaps between women and men and moms and dads go down and the gdp will be increased to put 500 billion into the economy so to have time with children helps moms rise. And then we did note that most other countries have paid family medical leave except the United States. But some have found that dads having access is so beneficial because again when women have money to spend, in the economy were 72 percent is based on purchasing decisions then we all do better. But if we have this wage ga gap, these countries that have paid family medical leave have a bonus package if the dad takes leave then they get an additional amount because it boost the economy so much. And with retention and productivity. And taxpayers are helped out in california with paid family medical leave and there is a 40 percent lower need for snap for the tan aft because they have that bridge moment of that cost comes in as child care costs more so having that access in that crucial time in a new baby arrives is very important. But also the Sandwich Generation needs the medical leave for all workers. So in comparing those places that have instituted paid family leave and those who have not, not, and an actual increase productivity. And the original research that i found many years ago much to my delight which i found out about the mom wage gap they make 71 cents to the dads dollar latina make as low as 46 cents with the same resume. We could talk about those studies with two pieces of paper the only difference one is a mom and the other is that they are not. This was a study done by doctor perrault that there 86 percent less likely to be hired if you are a mom with 11000 less. So getting rid of the wage hit with the breadwinner is so important to our families and economy. Does that wage gap persist even after mothers return to work quick. Yes. Forever so like the paid checks fairness act they cannot use prior history to use current salary earnings to you compounded wage doesnt accelerate your future history but i do want to bring this is that there is no single Silver Bullet solution we need for affordable and accessible childcare and access to affordable healthcare. We have a modern workforce they are stuck in a time that we need to bring up our workplace protections in to see the wage gap narrowed then we all win. You say there may not be a Silver Bullet quick. In the past for those that have many Different Solutions and we can independently pass these laws. It is long overdue. Thank you for your testimony. Well take a quick recess for ten minutes until the chairman return so i can go vote as well. [inaudible conversations] thank you for your patience as we are in the middle of votes im grateful to my colleagues from both houses and both sides of the aisle to share the gavel as we had it back and forth. With fiveminute rounds of questions are in my case it might be longer depending on how long it takes my colleagues to get back. At the end of your testimony that we as a society see as dignified and important work. With our laws do a better job to communicate that message if we allowed parents to draw forward Social Security benefits immediately following the birth of a child some mothers and fathers could act in such a Pivotal Moment quick. Absolutely i share the view expressed that having our lack of any solution for the time is a serious issue and having the option to do it is not inhibiting on mothers odds to be hired if you force the bill into a company its not the outcome any of us want if you pay for it out of public coffers and then have difficulty passing the bill and where will the money come from. To be well run budget neutral it is quite neutral in terms of communicating that society is with them and you are not doing this work alone. Thank you. That is a similar conclusion i have reached the belief, it is my belief that parents ought to have the option to decide to tap into that at the time they have a child. In your testimony you speak of the marriage penalties of the low income families of our tax code. And the federal government has put its thumb on the scales so what are the most important policy fixes that would help remove the anti marriage bias in our tax code or federal welfare system quick. So most of the penalties comes from the and in one on earned income tax credit and from housing vouchers the gun and comment is procedurally a fix with that eligibility if you get married but the cost is between 10,250,000,000,000 per year. Those are large numbers. So to do this we cannot afford the current level of generosity so we need to do a wider fix. Instead of having the earned income tax credit with a backdoor Family Support program with the wage subsidy to route more money through the Child Tax Credit or a child specific focus. Ay in your written testimony you wrote out of wedlock five the marriage penalty is in the tax code the only tax provision that didnt penalize them in fact so how could this family has faredd without the Child Tax Credit expansion and why is it important for the rest of the tax code to treat them . In this case what happened is when the custodial parent before marriage and she in claiming di did i miss pronounce the name i picked the most common and assigned them but her income is like 16,000 but its not enough for her to get the full refund before nonrefundable portion because it is smaller, they tend to score on the other side because they offset to some extent you cant get the same nonrefundable section so in this case it expanded and generosity when they got married because of how the nonrefundable portion interacts with they lost money getting 5,000 before and i believe they drop for virtually no benefit and at the same time some means tested benefits on the other side just to say even though you love each other and have jobs they are not making huge amounts of money that a couple making 36, 37, 38,000 there is no reason they shouldnt have the American Dream. Its as if you get married you are going to lose 10,000. We are punishing responsible decisions that i think everyone in the room thinks these people that want this its not the job to get between them and raise their children together. Thank you. Senator cassidy. Thank you for putting this on. We announced a bipartisan solution and i would say it is currently the only Common Ground im happy to report Additional Support in working with this legislative text we hope to introduce this fall. The first year is the most expensive and in subsequent years less so just context for the build the tax cut as it was discussed increased the Child Tax Credit from 1,000 to 2,000 so under the articles of it doesnt raise taxes and so we avoid that i think we heard from one when we did this and was even there is that it may actually be beneficial to the government in the theory that seems plausible because when the mother remains attached to the workplace instead of going on public assistance which has implications for the child and mother lon longterm, she remais attached to a we think that it has downstream benefits for mother and child and also extends to the parents and father but also the mother breastfeed for example, so we anticipate that women will use it more often which is why. So, you are bobbing your head affirmatively. Eu have suggestions to make it better . Im heartened to hear the proposals for the paid family leave. In a very serious way having the conversation we are having about how to fund it because that is the issue now so this is the change from where weve been on the paid family medical leave i think this is incredibly heartening. We have heard about a proposal where people can draw down from their Social Security or draw forward their Child Tax Credit. As much as i would like to support new parents i get the importance of paid family medical leave but i worry about what happens in the out years when the benefits have been drawn down. It is an Antipoverty Program and i hate to be robbing families later in childhood. We used to have a problem with overly poverty in the country. We havent completely tackled it there are eight states have passed these paid family medical leave walls. They are working really well. Its pennies per week to fund them and weve been talking to employers including small employers and they are very supportive of these laws and another are natural. That means a tiny share our imposed and they are passing these things. If you are going to do it through a payroll tax it is easier to speak of tha but just anonymous for someone more fluent but for a working family that just anonymous now i think it is Research Shows the more financial burden you put on an employer to employ somebody with a more likely they will figure out how to be productive. So i think that there is a little bit of a false narrative but there is no cost for the more generous benefit but we just raise to th raised the chit from 1,000 to 2,000 we are going to concentrate a portion of the option of the year of the childs birth but they will still receive more than they have been receiving seems to be something they dont necessarily increase with more if you increase fertility if you have whatever form it takes a Child Tax Credit the research on the policymaking is when countries spend money trying to get higher fertility rates it does cost a lot of money however the most costeffective means of bringing about some increase in this is more likely to happen if it could have an impact on childbearing decisions. There is a question if you are paying that up front the family may need that money more down the road is to make fo make frod discussion here and then they need the money earlier we spok spoke nicelyh the introduction but we do know typically people that have their children when they see will the kind of interaction that we anticipate is yes you are putting forward if you wish but if you maintain that attachment it continues to rise. There is a little bit of payback that occurs from that and also moldenoted in the first year ofs more expensive. It also would point out they will not score it as being expensive because the money is already out there thank you all for your time and i will yield back to the chair. The i had the opportunity to quickly peruse your testimony and i think youll very much for being here. I would like to start with you. Im fascinated by your research by tolerating the homeownership and a decreased homeownership do we have a policy on the wearing of fertility rate . Is that what you are suggesting . I dont know that its about Home Ownership its more about the housing costs. The amount spent on children is in fact been outpaced by price where there is solid evidence of considerable Financial Stress on families in the housing sector. They might concern i didnt focus on that in my spoken testimony because this is largely a state and local choice it is with all due respect somewhat limited so its a serious problem and there is an enormous amount of Research Suggesting the land use regulations to the price of housing especially in the rental market and in need having a negative impact on peoples ability to achieve their family desires to read this as a policy concern. The in the last 15 years the single largest increase of Household Budget has been for housing more than healthcare, more than higher education. Its masked by the fact those of us that have been in a place for a good portion of the 15 years havent experienced this and the cost of rent or to pay your mortgage has gone up faster than anything else they are confronting. Number two, this problem is contributed to by a lack of supply of Housing Stock which of course compels people big it causes more people to the homeless but i dont think either of those observations captures the insidious effect of the homeownership side of we have measured this pretty clear the 28yearold more likely living upstairs a at mom and das house and they never missed an n opportunity to point this out is in the air when definedbenefit pension plan for falling through the basement, peoples Retirement Security had been diminished and the number one asset is their home. Care to respond to my diatribe . For number one asset that many families are investing in is their home. The funny thing about owning a home, if you own a share of a company, maybe you get dividends or just a report regularly to so later. The funny thing about owning a home as it comes in the form of not getting rained on you have to buy a new roof for the Company Every so often in a new hot Water Company in hot water heater and keep buying all this stuff for what is allegedly an investment. Now the problem is when you view the home as an estimate of your goal rather than essentially a form of google consumption that depreciates come it creates an incentive to walk other people out. Essentially it says my home is an investment, so im going to make sure that my School District remains of people. Not too many other homes difficult Many Americans have bought into the story but i would suggest first offices hasnt always historically been the case. Typically you are securing retirement and have children that would take care of you and the second, this investment, the idea ultimately the only path forward is for a large number of neighborhoods in america to realize they are going to increase in the quantity so homeownership may be important in terms of security but i think its going to be in for a nasty shock. Argueargues suggesting they e mutually exclusive . There are times and places the real estate will appreciate and dont have a negative impact on anyone else its being kept off the market that the regulatory choices it is a supply issue principally a having this conversation and think the committethank the comg this hearing today in terms of economically and where we are not looking at all the measurements and get many people claim having children its too expensive. Talk about whats going on there and mayb. Maybe some of the reasr that there is some validity to that. We have to split this issue you into thinking about how people exist with the costs they face today and change expectations over time with the affordability of raising a family on the fixed expectations of what you want to get a in most areas and for most families havent gone up but over time, peoples expectations rise above that they want to deliver. You want to invest in afterschool clubs and activities and provide them with the best Quality Childcare available. So, the amount that actually spent by many families on children has risen that itselfa policy doesnt play a role in the market friendly economy and much of my research has been attempting to show that large segments particularly child care and housing costs there are big regulatory barriers that restrict the supply of such that when the demand rises for childcare or for housing its not an adequate supply response. It manifests itself a is the sae in the Housing Market through the landuse planning law which is particularly pernicious in many metropolitan areas. But entitled caret also manifests itself through staffing regulations and occupational life of things which many parents in the upper income quartiles desire that type of improved quality of child care. More interaction between the staff and children and Better Qualified staff. But when that is imposed as a policy in the state level it has the effect of raising childcare prices and forcing many of the family is out of the formal childcare sector and into the informal childcare sector where we have less of an idea. So, i guess to summarize that point, i agree that over the longterm if you want expectations, things probably have gotten more affordable. Expectations changed. And that seems over time you were spending more money on their family is coming into this certain prophecies of the state and local level which raises the price. And is there any suggestion of a policy change to help remedy that . The main point i needed my testimonymade in mytestimony, tt items or housing and childcare costchildcarecomes with a familg children, and most of the positive bigotry changes that could be made with primarily to occur at the state and local level. Level. Federal government policy can push in the right direction. I may not agree with all of the current federal subsidy programs in their existence, but to the extent we are going to have them come into conditionality, making sure that we are not rewarding the policy by distributing subsidies to areas that have very restrict supplyside. I think its something that congress men and women should be looking at. To have a comment on that . I agree. I know you only have 30 seconds here. From the historical perspective, we have to remember the change we have seen in American Families and from a stayathome caregivers to single breadwinner models to the dual breadwinner model or the single parent model and so now most are growing up with their parents or labor force and we havent come to terms with that in terms of what it means. Child care even if it were more regulated, we havent come to terms with it. Thank you. Thank you mr. Chairman. In 2016, maryland ranked fifth in the country in terms of most expensive child care costing an average of 14,000. It could cost 37. Generals are believed to assembly is working to expand three k. But isnt universally and maybe foreseeable future. A positive impact on the higher income families. We have a lot of research about the universal pk and what it benefits for all children. The benefits for largest the least educated parents because it helps them catch up to its beneficial for all kids and it also is a very important step of child care for that year. But as you are indicating, universal pre k. The federal government as a Child Care Subsidy Program for lowincome families, bu but its only funded athatsonly funded f support what hes. You get the subsidy but if not, you are out of luck and that is unconscionable. As far on return on vestments, you think that is reasonable . Thick foam about th film about y comes the best quality programs eight or 9one, that will work with the program it is less than a. So, that is what we need to be careful about, proposals to equip the quality and the regulation. The two sides to that. All year around and what are some of the proposals we should push forward but substandard what are the proposals we should put forward in need of that . Thank you for being a cosponsor of child care for working families act, which members of moms rising support as well. We hear from our members, there is affordability and accessibility which 50 of parents are living right now, and also excellence. Early learning programs, every child has the opportunity to thrive. That is the strongest return on investment. We need to make investments in Early Learning starting from 0 to age 5. We are seeing incredible gaps in coverage and we move into subsidized childcare, and they are among the lowest paid workers in our nation and the child care for working families act includes components to all of those and then we have universal prehandle whole system for the education of our children because heres one thing that is important, parents need safe and routine places for their children to be so they can work. Parents are increasing labor force. Children need safe and addressing places so they can thrive in the future and be future leaders and childcare workers need clear pay. One point people were w talkin about a moment ago increased productivity in the United States of america and productivity has gone up 70 in the past 30 years actual wages remains quite stagnant in the last couple decades. Four years or prek, where do you see the 2s and 3s. We dont have a smooth line through childcare but we need to make policy for working families act and restructuring our tax code. And policies that allow parents to be in the labor force and make fair wages no matter where they work. E thank you, mister chairman. Sorry we have been in and out with these things. I want to push back on mister boren and regulation of child healthcare. It is expensive but i am from virginia and it has the result of some tragedy and i have been part of this for 20 years, the people we are hiring the give criminal background checks or the quality of the facility and any time a child dies we try to put regulations in place to make it safe for all our kids. Also seems to be a subset of this is pushing back against women in the workforce. One of the things this committee pushes hard for is gdp. And it is only possible the women in the workforce in the last couple years, and a smaller percentage. One of the things that closed down economic growth. The net effect of tax cut and jobs act. Do you see it paid nearly enough attention to lower income folks that arent getting married. A talking about expansion of the tax credit. And an earned income tax credit pushing through the house right now, significant increase in the earned income tax credit for childless individuals. It is important, childless individuals, the parents of tomorrow, about to become parents and young adults are the poorest age group, i would have thought Young Children, young adults 1824, that is the group that could benefit from extension and noncustodial fathers. And what was involved. We want to be evenhanded to be supporting both moms and dads and people on their pathway to starting families. The marriage penalty that so many federal programs hurt you or move in the wrong direction. Have you thought much about how you would overcome the various marriage penalty processes beginning with the tax credit . One thing we hear from members again and again his people should be able to determine who is their family and how they are raising children. Grandparents who are involved in families, and the important thing to do is look at the reality of families today and make sure we are treating our family secondly and equally. And Public Policies, u to matc modern labor forces. And companies that employers have higher returns coming in. And women and leadership, and everybody has a chance to thrive to make sure it happens. Tossing the question back to you on the marriage penalties have you put together your comprehensive legislative fees to fix that . Pieces in the works. And interesting case where we heard more marriage penalty, very wellintentioned and it discriminates against childless people, doesnt give them equal benefit. Tax filers i provided in my written testimony, both of those people were getting the full eit see they were eligible for as well. The marriage penalty would be even larger. Another 5,000 that would be lost when they got married. The basic antimarriage position into the a itc made the problem even worse where they are today. Human lives are pathetic, they developed the signal today who is married tomorrow, childless person today has children tomorrow. Peoples life situation changes. Le when we dont think about that we end up creating barriers to the light that they themselves want. I want childless people to be treated equally which means it would be better to go through flat wage subsidy the didnt refer to Family Status at all. If we are going to have this done when you file your taxes, i dont want it to be a situation where both the childless and custodial parent get a benefit as long as they pay the effort. That is not a recipe for supporting americans of any status. Sounds like you and andrew yang have been talking. Al interesting idea. Senator hassan. Thank you for holding this hearing. If you had a question to Jane Waldfogel, a question about paid family leave. I want to follow up on one aspect. I will add my voice to the chorus that families shouldnt have to make the impossible choice between earning a paycheck and spending time with a loved one in need or taking care of their own personal healthcare crisis and paid medical leave to impress this issue. As i think it has been discussed, there is a partial placement. And and there has been discussion, and the weather a full effect is not in the workplace. We dont talk enough about employers. Employers are in a tough position. And what they say is, we have to give them leave. Somebody is ill herself, her husband has cancer, she has a new baby, we have to give employees time off, we see that they get paid and they are paid through social insurance funds. And it is 85 of the time they are covering the work by assigning it to other employees are waiting for the person to come back. It is very rare to hire a replacement worker, only 15 of the time and only 15 of employers say i have trouble covering the work when a person was out. And it includes small employers, supportive of these laws. When we started the survey i was nervous what we were going to find, 10 or 15 , 10 of employers opposed pretty much any law and l finding 85 or 9 who were supportive or neutral. It is pretty impressive too and similar to what i was hearing and what i have been hearing as well. The other thing i wanted to touch on with you, the issue of businesses needing more skilled workers, the number one thing i hear from businesses across new hampshire. What we also heres too often, who are underemployed or fallen out of the labor market entirely are not able to get the training they need or jobs are open, they face barriers like transportation and childcare. They have childcare or transportation to it. I introduced a bipartisan bill called the gateway to careers act which would strengthen pathway opportunities that help individuals navigate berries that keep too many people participating or staying in the workforce. Do you think we should be doing more to help service what they already have to be eligible for to strengthen Training Programs to be responsive to issues individual states outside the workplace. I will briefly say the work i have done on how families spend their ir tcc just families are facing high transportation and Childcare Costs. We always thought it would be used for durable goods or furniture for the family or getting into a better apartment. Unfortunately families seem to be using it to pay back bills or paying for work expenses primarily transportation and childcare. Anything you can do on that front would be fabulous. Thank you for putting forward that bill was we see 3 things that need to happen, better, fairer wages, we need to update our outdated policies and those policies need to be comprehensive. When we talk about things like paid family medical leave, it is unpaid, and covering significant serious illness or significant serious illness of a close Family Member. That is the majority of the time it is used. We dont want to rob one program to pay another program. Families are already stretched. One thing that hasnt come up in a hearing his wealth inequality. We have an increase in productivity but over the last several years wages remain stagnant. D that is putting us in a situation that an mit economist, leading toward a third World Economic model that will implode the middle class. We need to have comprehensive policies and to your point we need to make basic necessities including transportation, more affordable for families, we dont have a single solution for what is happening in the United States of america but america is in crisis. And looking at the solution for multiple angles as well. Thank you for letting us go over. Im grateful to have the participation from both ends of the capital. We do a second round for those interested and started that ip now. I want to start around with ryan bourne. In your testimony you explain childcare regulations in places that affect the job Care Industry tends to reduce the supply of Childcare Centers especially in poor areas, reducing the rate of formal care options for families. A new law in washington dc when it becomes fully implemented over the next few years start require childcare providers to earn degrees, a 2year postsecondary degree, in some cases a four your College Degree or a certification. This of course will inevitably have an impact on supply which has an impact on price. Marketbased childcare is widely recognized financial burden for working families. A New York Times survey, 64 of respondentss, i expect to have fewer children. They expect to have fewer children than they considered ideal because they leave childcare is too expensive. Extent childcare regulation is responsible for Childcare Costs . It is difficult, the supply factors, it is more expensive over time. It is very labor intensive, difficult to automate the same way you automate in the Manufacturing Sector in the big structural reasons, there has been a big increase in demand for formal childcare. They value kids highly so they want a safe loving environment and for many particularly upper income families, high Quality Childcare. If you look across states, areas with the highest cost of childcare, some of the richest states that feed into this idea that prices are strongly income elastic, yet theresla a lot o economic evidence that suggested regulation of childcare workers, in particular the number of Staff Required per number of children and licensing requirements as you alluded to in terms of qualification requirements raise costs substantially. There has to and some Academic Work that suggests if you relax across all age groups the stock child ratio would reduce childcare, these regulations are particularly regressive. They looked at comprehensive data and looked at this metrically. We found staff child ratio regulations had no effect in improving quality by driving up your cost of care in poor areas that led to closure and that lack of availability of formal census lead to much greater use of home data. The massive tradeoff, for interaction time in the formal sense that exists in the state. With the quality of the informal care, and a big tradeoff and upper income parents want and desire these anyway. What these regulations do is strip away the choice for lower income families to can have regressive effect in termsdl o access for those people to the labor market. Other than childcare reforms, what are your favorite policy reforms that could lower the cost of living for low income families . The biggest expenditure is housing costs and a key driver of housing costs in any major cities particularly where Economic Opportunities are greatest tends to be associated with overly restrictive zoning and landuse planning laws i dont think we can get to the nub of this affordability issue, primarily a state and local issue, the federal government scheme like communities element block grants, with states and localities. As to the extent that they come without conditions about supply environment they subsidize bad policies. I now had has been looking at this trying to work out a way of making states and localities to liberalize their planning laws and that is a positive step forward. I also think with this rise of rent control as a potential solution being advocated i would like to see federal policy that precludes policies that would damage supply further. After a while one does have to be careful. There are problems for the federal government and try to treat remedy with another federal remedy. My time for this round is expired. Mister heck is next. Thank you for getting to this, better wages especially in light of the context of 30 years of stagnant wages because it seems to be foundational with issues for purposes of discussion im thinking about three different buckets in which the federal government could take action to affect people standard of living and what is the thing. For tax expenditures to impact those things, skyrocketing cost associated with healthcare, childcare, or cashing a pocket through lower taxes and the like. Bucket 2, we can adopt those policies which lead to higher wages for at least some. Increase minimum wage, federal level hasnt been increased in ten years, nowhere near the purchasing power, more robust collectivebargaining favoring rights of others. Bucket 3 is the broader issue, spirit of disclosure, this is my favorite. I believe the Federal Reserve pursued a policy which suppressed wage growth. In the past ten years there have only been two months in or which our labor supply increased by less than the replacement number in two months in ten years. We havent had an approach to the cost of money which gets to fool employment, they keep changing their definition of what full employment is. They keep lowering and as a consequence we had very slow wage growth. I am also reminded what one of the chairs of the Federal Reserve said which is recovery is dont usually die of natural causes, they are murdered by the fed. I am interested in knowing from each of you, as an organization with 1,000,000 members headquartered in my home state we are proud of the work you do. If we were to do one thing i will go down the line. One thing to make a difference, what would it be . Tough question. We ask tough questions. We have to answer tough questions all the time. Im sharing the pain. Thank you for sharing the pain. [l i would do all three and that is because i know we can do more than one thing at a time. I know what we shouldnt do isi cut quality because we think it will cut costs. We want to look at the fact that the return on investment goes upam when we have increas quality, and looking at the roi coming up, we need to make sure we are not cutting care or moving forward wages so if i had to take one, i am all three and i will see how they handle this. I will say all three as well because we should have full employment and higher minimum wages and a stronger if you could choose one which one would make the biggest difference. I will come back to the universal child allowance, with these forces sweeping our economy children should not be suffering because of this, the instability in the economy, people whose workhours change from week to week which means their earnings change week to week how do you pay for housing, how do you pay for child care when your earnings are changing from week to week. You are worrying about money all the time. What impact is that having on your family life and your nk children . Children not to be protected from these kinds of forces swirling around the economy as we try to sort that all out. Ed the Child Tax Credit is a Fabulous Program moving towards that goal and anything you do to expand it to make it reach more families and become more universal that is what we should be doing. When we think about helping people and making it more affordable to raise a family. You are tackling big challenges. I will be more controversial and reject the premise and a full approach is to look at why cost of certain necessity goods and services are so expensive in the first place and try to expand the supply side to make goods inherently cheaper, negating the demand in the way of federal borrowing subsidies in price and wage control and given fiscal conditions you find yourselves in given the limit of what you can achieve through tight labor market and given the risks associated with wage and price control the principle of first do no harm examine what policies raise the cost of living for poor families in particular that is a better and fruitful approach. I will take the question and propose one legislative fix, a legislative fix with right is attached so we should take the a itc and repeal it and replace it with a wage subsidy that does w not discriminate based family structure. It currently has a baked in benefit for children. We should roll back into the Child Tax Credit to expand and because we have to pay for it we should pay with nominal gdp targeting at the fed which will increase economic growth. Thank you for your indulgence. I wanted to follow up on some additional questions. Mister stone, in your testimony you state the declining marriage rate accounts for half of thehe increase in the fertility gap for the last decade and all the increase since 2000, right . Correct. Explain why marriage rates are declining and what if anything can be done if i find the right words here. I dont want to live in a country with the omnipresence of a nanny state that will incentivize people to get married and tell them when it is time to get married but i dont want to live in a country where the country is disincentive eyes and people are artificially creating an environment in which people dont want to get married. Any thoughts on what we might be doing their . The idea of the fertility gap, it is rising and not because people want more kids was the amount of kids they want is stable and fertility is falling but when you look at how it is falling, i just mean birth rates. For a woman who gets married at a given age or odds of having children are pretty similar to what they were 30 years ago. It is almost entirely about marriage choice, marriage is being postponed and for working people that is having less impact at all. People are getting married at the same rate they always did. This was presented as a class problem, there is a cultural shift happening with different groups of people. May be but it could also be people with our College Degree are more likely to be exposed to extensive marriage penalties or incomes are in a range impacted by that. Which brings us to this worry about this nanny state or grandma state lecturing you about getting married. Nobody wants this. Nobody is saying i wish the irs would give me advice whether to marry my girlfriend. Nobody wants this. Luckily, this isnt what we need. Of the problem is the marriage penalty and i think it is, what we need is we need probably the first step is the most popular thing in congress, to create a commission of some kind to study where are their marriage penalties, can we identify where they occur and can we come up with an agreeable way to a spending neutral fashion, essentially rewrite the eligibility and benefit rules so we are still spending the same amount of money on essentially the same income range of people but doing a way that doesnt discourage family formation. This is lecturing anybody about getting married. Its not pressuring anyonefa t do anything they dont want to do, just we made a mistake in how we wrote these programs, they are not designed for the modern world where many women probably are both working so when the eligibility threshold doubles you have a serious problem. After we have done a kind of study we need a little that is whenever we score a bill we really need that scoring process to include does this create a marriage penalty . Yes or no . And if it does it would be nice to know. It is not a hard thing to calculate. Havingth a bit of Forward Guidance on this as we go forward whenever we have a new bill, individuals, business or taxes it should be scored, does it create a marriage penalty . When you explain it that way it is easier to understand how that could happen and in nominal terms, the size of the penalty might seem smaller with regard to some of those would be couples and elsewhere in the economy but in relative terms when you think about what that does to the marginal bottom line of families right in this sweet spot where it makes a difference that can impact behavior. Jane waldfogel, i want to follow up on something you mentioned. On you coauthored a 2016 study in which you showed that the motherhood wage gap has declined, in some cases has been replaced with something of a wage premium. Mi stating that correctly . In light of that can you discuss that finding and tell us in light of that evidence is it fair to conclude the affordability crisis is necessarily driven by a motherhood wage gap indicating there could be other factors at play . I have been working on the motherhood wage gap for a long time. More than 25 years ago. I appreciate that. And what i learned doing that work was women who didnt have the opportunity to take maternity leave, often were faced with an impossible choice so they faced an impossible choice, didnt have enough time off to stay home as long as they needed to with their baby so they would leave their job and would come back a few years later and start at the bottom of the labor market and it took 10 or 15 years to get back on par with women who had children or were in similar jobs with similar training. The motherhood wage penalty lasts for a long time. We live in a world now where although we dont have paid family leave and childcare in all employer settings we have a lot more than we used to back in those days when doing that research. It doesnt surprise me that the motherhood wage penalty has narrowed over time. We have a problem in terms of womens earnings but not as bad as it used to be. At the same time other things happened in the labor market and the education system. Women are getting more education than men. There is a group we are worried about in the labor market, less educated men who are taking a hit. Just wants to follow up on what Jane Waldfogel said, it is not gone. They were built on u. S. Census data, that moms are making re 0. 71. Women are making 0. 80 to a man app store, women of all races. The motherhood gap is still significant and very strong. When looking at what is happening with solutions in our country, married or unmarried or type of family or living inr impacting the ford ability of raising a family in america, and structural racism, moms of color are experiencing the most and single moms have wage th discrimination according to 2018 data single moms earning 0. 65 to a dads dollar, single dad. When we are looking at solutions we have to look at pay parity solutions. We need to look at the fact according to Johns Hopkins university 57 of births in the millennial population were 2 unmarried women and we need to acknowledge 82 of women in america have children by the time they are 44 years old. And focusing on narrow solutions wont work for the majority of families. We can make sure the solutions we create we create for all of working america, not just some and inequities of the past. Do you have your hands up or want to respond . This motherhood paid deal is not gone. It is very real. There is Extensive Research on this. Arch in germany and austria, there is no correlation with Public Benefits for childbearing or motherhood. It is almost entirely driven by local social norms which is discrimination may very well be part of it but also suggests policies we want to advance in terms of what we believe is right for families is good for families, we shouldfo not convince ourselves giving paid leave which we should get paid leave but shouldnt convince ourselves we will eliminate a pay gap that exists even in countries that have programs far more generous that we are talking about. These are harder to correct than what we convince ourselves of in political discussions. They may be worth doing it because they are good kids or because they are good communication, what we value they dont address the pay gap in. That is the problem that almost no country has found. H we should keep in mind what is possible to achieve, promises that end of being lies to people we are trying to help. I want to go back to the marriage question, it is an important one and i want to say my colleague, kathy eden, has done the best research about what it is low incomes are posting marriage. Young men and women feeling like they need to attain certain footholds before they get married. They want to have a decent job, they cant get married until they are stable on their feet. I am thinking about the conversation this afternoon about how i hiding housing costs and People Living in the bedroom, and difficulties in the labor market and uncertain Work Schedules and im in favor of getting rid of marriage penalties in Public Policies which we shouldnt have marriage penalties for sure but we should think about other things that are holding young people back from marriage and student debt we have been talking about. No wonder young people are getting married given they dont have a stable place to live in debt from school and dont have a stable job and in some ways we wouldnt want them to be rushing into these circumstances. One of those three bucket things is complex to approve prospects to young adults but it is the most pressing challenge, a process for young adults because they are the parents of the future. This is probably the one area for mister stone actually. Im skeptical of the idea that tax policy affects the behavior to a significant degree or also the changing tax policy would lead to any significant change in fertility rates. O and very different tax and benefit systems there has been a similar kind of secular decline in fertility rates. And secondly the mean age of first marriage for women is already much lower in the us than in countries such as france and sweden but those countries have higher fertility rates. One area where i question how much effect and tax and benefit policy has on this issue . One last question, mister stone. Our fertility rate is under one. 8, the replacement doesnt take into account immigration and the overall population growth but there is no question that we have been below replacement and when i think of programs like Social Security which depends on the number of active workers in the workforce supporting a program that supports those who retired it, begs the question what are the longterm consequences of having a fertility rate below replacement depending on immigration policy. I suspect there are serious implications. Would you care to briefly enumerate some of them . It would be easier to enumerate them if any of our longterm planning agencies like cbo, the Social Security libo if any of these agencies bother to do a simulation that simulated a fertility rate below one. 8, the lowest in area of Social Security trustees consider possible in the most recent update on actuarial soundness of the funds so we are beyond the worstcase scenario of what any longterm planners prepared for. You see the same incenses forecasts estimating the first year of their forecast foror population growth by 350,000 people in one year. That was a big miss. The first is we should probably force our forecasting agencies to make suree their first yea of numbers is correct let alone get more accurate on the out years. Given that we are not prepared for the demographic shift in terms of low population growth there are significant consequences. Theres an article in the wall street journal about lots of older americans, sizable houses in nice neighborhoods. And planning to sell them for retirement. Let me interject something. There is not sufficient Housing Stock. They cant sell the home because there isnt much market and not as well to do. We think about Social Security and intergenerational transfer in the entire economy is intergenerational transfer. You own stock in a country that makes hotdogs, a kid that eats hotdogs to have any value when you sell it and stock market for a variety of channels open to Foreign Investment that we get a nice thing that we buy goods from a foreign country and invest in our security which is a handout and there needs to be a next generation to protect the value of the asset. The consequent of low fertility is permanent secular stagnation or economic demand. We heard a lot about wage stagnation and how productivity is growing and wages havent. It is better than it has been in japan. One reason for that is there has been no population growth with demand in the market size. There is not growth. What is the growth market. You have less Sustainable Public finances. We have aging with dignity, and very few countries achieve it with increasingly unhealthy aging and things like that is notll well set up to handle. We are facing a serious issue down the road. When we think about low birth rates, replacement rate is notc what motivates me. I care about individual desires. Im not trying to get anybody, have one. On some level we need a society that continues to have growth in the market. Fertility rates are falling in those countries. More countries like japan are aging and we need immigrants. So theres more competition for those works. Net migration rates have been falling for three decades and will keep falling regardless what happens so we cant count on immigration to lift our fiscal vote. It wont. Not always. Thank you, mister chairman. I want to thank each of you. The testimony you provided has been outstanding and thoughtful. Thank you, all of the members for participating in the hearing, we had an outstanding exchange. We are going to adjourn in a moment and as the record opened for three days should there be a need to supplement the record in writing. And we stand adjourns, thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] thursday on cspan the house meet at 10 00 a. M. Eastern for general speeches followed by legislative business at noon. A war powers resolution calling for the president to limit the use of military action against iran. At 10 00 a. M. On cspan2 the Senate Returns to consider the nomination of paul ray to be head of Information Regulatory Affairs at the office of management and budget. In toledo, ohio as part of the 2020 reelection campaign. On cspan3 an effort to secure Voting System ahead of the 2020 election. The house and Ministry Hearing gets underway at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Next a look at the potential for commerce in the space. Chamber of commerce ceo Thomas Donohue join