Right here. I think were all pretty familiar with this new virtual setting. But because this is our First Virtual hearing of this subcommittee, i want to take a moment to provide members with a few reminders before we begin. We will proceed in the same fashion as this committee always has. We will begin with Opening Statements by the chair and Ranking Member. Followed by testimony from our witnesses and an opportunity for every member to inquire for five minutes. We will dispense with our practice of observing the gibbons rule and instead go in in order of seniority for questioning, alternating between minority and majority members. Members are advised that the clerk may mute those who are not speaking in order to limit background noise and feedback. All members are responsible for unmuting themselves. When they are recognized for their five minutes or when they otherwise seek recognition. I want to thank you all for your patience as we navigate this new technology. In order to continue serving our country together in this great time of need. With that, i welcome you to the subcommittees hearing on the childcare crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Events of the past weeks have shown the need for policies to strengthen child wellbeing. As thousands of youth all across america marched, demonstrated and some even looted as they challenged our systems of social, educational, and economic justice. Childcare powers both family economic wellbeing and our National Economic growth. Prior to the pandemic, federal funding only provided childcare for 1 in 6 eligible children. Parents in communities weighed down by poverty and systemic racism experienced a shortage of highquality, affordable childcare. Today we face a Global Pandemic that as disproportionately infected and killed people in the same struggling communities. And the childcare crisis we had before it is now much, much worse. Now parents have lost millions of additional Childcare Options. And providers confront new costs to keep children and workers safe. Risking financial losses for businesses already operating on the knifes edge of profitability. In illinois, nearly half of all previously available childcare slots are at risk of disappearing altogether due to the pandemic. And 60 of childcare programs are fully closed. In chicago, i must say, we did not have much to loss. Prepandemic 5 out of 6 chicago children lived in a childcare desert where children outnumbered childcare slots by 3 to 1 or more. As states lift stayathome orders and other economic restrictions, more parents are returning to work, if they can. Quality, affordable childcare is a cornerstone of parents ability to work and move up the economic ladder. I know essential workers who couldnt work because they had no one to watch their children. I know parents who have lost so much income that they cant afford childcare in order to work. As a black man living in chicago, i have grieved at far too many funerals for friends lost to covid19. And i know far too many parents who legitimately fear for their familys health when they return to work and their children go back to school. When i see the devastation caused by this pandemic and the barriers to working due to childcare, i am offended by claims that people will refuse to work because of the availability of supplemental unemployment benefits. This charge is simplistic, insulting and refuted by datas that show lowwage workers stayed at work and returned to work each when faced with unsafe working conditions and inadequate waging. As our nation grapples with structural racism, policymakers need to enact policies that support workers and address the barriers they face. Taking care not to penalize communities weighed down by poverty and racism. Big challenges call for big collusion solutions. N big solutions. Now is the time for this committee and this congress to take meaningful action to ensure that highQuality Childcare is available to all who need it. I look forward to working with the Ranking Member, with members of our subcommittee, my good friend who chairs the education and labor committee, and classroom nita lowey at the appropriations meeting to use all the levers at our disposal to grow our workforce and our economy. We must invest in families and in our childcare infrastructure, both the people and the building. We need to make sure that parents can afford Quality Childcare. That the people who provide it earn a living wage. That is the right thing for our economy. The right thing for our children. And the right way to give everyone a fair shot in america. Finally, i ask unanimous consent to submit to the record a new report by the university of illinois system about how childcare is foundational for economic recovery. I will now recognize the Ranking Member for an open statement. Representati representative . Thank you, chairman davis. I appreciate you holding this hearing today on childcare and the corona crisis. I share your interest on this topic and i believe that childcare is key to making americas recovery even stronger. I want to thank all the witnesses for taking the time to join us as well. Millions of americans want to return to work, and in order to do so, they must be able to rely on Childcare Providers to keep their children safe and healthy throughout the work day. Even before this crisis, we knew there were challenges to ensuring americans had access to affordable, highQuality Childcare. The pandemic has only exacerbated those concerns with the childcare industry hit hard by this crisis. Many providers, which largely operate on breakeven margins, could remain closed, making it even harder for families to find childcare. Republicans and democrats have consistently worked together to address these issues. In the last five Years Congress has doubled funding for the childcare and Development Block grant and included billions of dollars in muchneeded support to providers and essential workers in the c. A. R. E. S. Act. With states safely reopening, Childcare Providers now face many new challenges. These include restrictions on group and class sizes, social distancing guidelines, and other health and safety protocols that are necessary to prevent the spread of covid19. These new requirements and ongoing concerns the pandemic presents are making it hard for providers to recover and maintain a thriving business. Yesterday i had the privilege of talking to four Childcare Center directors of my district, in indiana. Childcare is deemed an essential service. All the providers i talked to have gone above and beyond to keep their businesses afloat and ensure their children and teachers are in a safe environment. One provider said she spent 20,000 to stock her two centers with face masks, cleaning materials and individual sets of learning materials for children. Another provider needed to put in a new handwashing sink and another was hiring a cleaning service to take some of the burden off her own staff. They talked about the need to hire quality teachers so they can have smaller class sizes and Consumer Education so parents can feel comfortable bringing their kids back. In my district, the Manufacturing Industry relies heavily on these providers, and its a battle every day to keep their doors open. Thankfully, these and many other Childcare Providers in indiana are receiving extra support through grant awards from Early Learning indiana as part of its, quote, unquote, comeback stronger campaign. Which was launched in early may with the support of a 15 million grant from the lily endowment. Since then, early indiana was awarded 155 Early Education providers more than 2 million for health and safetyrelated expenses and hiring teachers. From the beginning of this crisis, indiana acted to prioritize working families by using funds from the c. A. R. E. S. Act to provide rapt response grants directly to Childcare Providers. I have tremendous respect for the state and local leaders who stepped up and worked hard to help those impacted by the pandemic. Im thrilled to have dr. Sullivan with us here today to talk about those initiatives. Traditionally in thee discussions the needs of Childcare Centers takes center stage, but i also want to highlight small homebased providers. Many Family Childcare homes played an Important Role throughout this crisis by remaining open to provide childcare for essential workers, particularly those working nontraditional hours. Family childcare arrangements are often more affordable and provide flexibility for working parents. Many parents prefer Family Childcare because it offers smaller scale, mixedage care that allows for close and Lasting Bonds with a caregiver. As we continue to deal with this Public Health emergency, we should ensure the availability of childcare settings that serves small groups of children which can be a reassuring option for parents worried about covid19 exposure. These Family Childcare providers also need to have just that Small Business that our economic recovery will depend on. I hope we can Work Together to find ways to support and strengthen childcare for working families. If a large portion of our nations providers are forced to permanently shut down, parents in all industries will be unable to go back to work, significantly slowing our own economic recovery. Childcare is exactly the type of smart investment we should be prioritize as we safely reopen and rebuild americas economy. I look forward to our discussion, mr. Chairman. With that, i yield back. Thank you, representative. Without objection, all members Opening Statements will be made a part of the record. And now we turn to our,s. Let me thank you to our distinguished witnesses for taking the time to appear before us today to discuss this very important issue. First, i have the honor of welcoming mr. Rashid malik, a senior policy analyst at the center for American Progress. Who focus on childcare. Next, we have ms. Regina mcchristian, an essential worker at a chicagoarea hospital and mother of a 2 1 2yearold daughter. Thank you, ms. Mcchristian. Doctor anders llaya samuel, dirt the northwest association and an expert in race equity and Child Development. And finally, i will recognize the Ranking Member to introduce our fourth witness. Thank you again, mr. Chairman. Im pleased to introduce dr. Jennifer sullivan who has served as the secretary of the indiana family and social Services Administration since january of 2017. Shes also held the positions of Deputy State Health commissioner and director for Health Outcomes at the Indiana State Department of health and is also a professor of clinical emergency medicine and pediatrics at indianas University School of medicine. Shes been dedicated to building deliberate and effective delivery of health care and social services to hoosiers and is committed to Strategic Alignment across government and the private sector to improve Health Outcomes and fill unmet social needs. I think we will benefit from her unique perspective on these challenges. Dr. Sullivan, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, representative. Thank all of you. Each of your statements will be made a part of the record in its entirety, and i would ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes or less. To help you with that time, please keep an eye on the clock. That should be pinned to your screen. I will notify you when your time has expired. And its my pleasure now to ask mr. Malik, if you would proceed. Thank you, chairman davis, Ranking Member, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. We have discussed our nations childcare infrastructure, which i believe will play a pivotal role in determining whether our country can successfully recover from this unprecedented economic and Public Health crisis. The u. S. Invests a what is that sound . Gdp sorry . In childcare than almost every other developed economy in the world. Perhaps it should not surprise us then that licensed childcare in this country is often prohibitively expensive and beset by supply shortages that result in long waiting lists and reductions in labor force participation. Over the past few years my colleagues and i have studied these shortages by constructing the first and only National Database of licensed Childcare Providers. By providing state level data gathered from public records requests and publicly available databases, our team can identify the location and capacity of more 235,000 Childcare Providers, including both homebased childcare and Childcare Centers. By comparing thee childcare locations with the nearby population of Young Children, weve been able to study what we call childcare deserts, areas where there is not enough nearby licensed childcare to serve the families that may need it. Based on our analysis of childcare supply across every u. S. Census tract, we found that approximately 51 of families with a young child live in a childcare desert. This week we launched an important update to our website, childcaredeserts. Org which features interactive maps which shows at the neighborhood level where these childcare deserts existed prior to the pandemic. After studying these communities weve come to the following conclusions. Childcare deserts primarily impact low and middle income families. Predominately hispanic neighborhoods are very likely to be childcare deserts and many but not all predominately black neighborhoods lack sufficient childcare. Also, rural areas have very little licensed childcare and tend to rely more on homebased providers whose numbers have been in decline over the past decade. Finally, its vitally important to highlight how important it can be to gender equity in the workforce. The available of childcare is closely tied to Maternal Labor force participation. In fact, our polling has found that mothers say access to more reliable and affordable childcare would allow them to take steps to increase their earnings and advance their careers. The signs were seeing from the industry are worrying. 1 3 of the childcare workforce lost their jobs in april and those jobs may not come back without a public investment. Revenues have been decimated due to lower enrollment while operating costs associated with reopening have increased dramatically. Without new federal funds to support the physical infrastructure of childcare facilities, we should expect diminished childcare supply, which could inhibit our economic recovery. To this point, the center for American Progress just yesterday published an open letter to policymakers signed by 100 prominent economists who stated that, an effective government response to the childcare crisis will play a vital role in the reopening of workplaces. My sincere concern is that without major immediate and ongoing investments in our childcare infrastructure, we could very well lose as much as half of our countrys childcare capacity. Ultimately, we could be left with a childcare system that is only accessible for the privileged, limiting access for children for whom the benefits of childcare are the greatest. We risk economically disastrous outcomes as women take on more and more unpaid childcare duties and put their careers on hold or reduce their hours worked. An immediate influx of dedicated childcare funding is needed to stabilize the industry, but the coronavirus pandemic nearly exposed longstanding issues in the childcare market. A longterm investment such as an increase in mandatory funding for the childcare entitle to states would allow states to make muchneeded improvements, and moving forward, we need policies that do three things. One, increase compensation and provide professional development for Early Childhood educators. Two, build the supply of Quality Childcare options available near home or work that provide care when families need it. And three, reduce costs for families so that all children can access Early Learning opportunities, regardless of their household. Thank you again for inviting me to this hearing. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Malik. And now id like to ask ms. Mcchristian, who is what i call an essential worker, and they have been so much a part of our effort to navigate the pennsylvania th pandemic that we all face. Ms. Mcchristian, would you proceed . You need to be unmuted. Okay. Can you hear me . Yes. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. Id like to thank you, chairman davis, as well as the Ranking Member for holding this important hearing. My name is regina mcchristian and im a ct technologist at a hospital just outside of chicago. Im