Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act

Madam President, this last weekend in Chicago was memorable--memorable for the wrong reasons. This last weekend in Chicago, gun violence took the lives of 14 people and wounded 82.

I am honored to represent Illinois. I am especially honored to represent a great city such as Chicago. But I am heartbroken to think about what happened this past weekend.

Mayor Emanuel and Superintendent Gary McCarthy anticipated the Fourth of July weekend would be a challenge, and they dispatched hundreds of police to the streets of Chicago in an effort to avert this violence. I wouldn't say they failed, but I would say the tragedy that followed tells us we have a lot of work to do.

I am sure Mayor Emanuel and all of the elected officials in Chicago, including Superintendent McCarthy, are looking over what happened this past weekend trying to think of what they can do to bring peace to the city and end the violence which has taken so many lives. They will be working overtime, and a lot of people will point the finger of blame and say they could have done more. I think the mayor would acknowledge he could have done more. But let me add, we all could have done more. It isn't just the city's responsibility that this kind of violence has occurred. It isn't just the misfortune of the city of Chicago that these lives were lost and that gun violence continues to plague us. It is a responsibility that goes far beyond the city of Chicago. It is a responsibility we have visited on this Chamber, of the Senate.

How can we ignore gun violence in America wherever it occurs--in Chicago, in Washington, DC, across this country? What are we doing as Members of the Senate? What efforts are we making to make America a safer place to live? We have run away from it. We ran away from our responsibility when it comes to an honest, conscientious discussion about gun control.

Some people are frightened of this issue. They think when you get near the Second Amendment, it is the third rail of politics, and that there are gun lobby groups out there just waiting to pounce on any Member who comes to the floor of this Senate and talks about changing our gun laws. That has been the case for a long time, and yet the American people, when you ask them about the basics, get it. They understand you can protect our Second Amendment rights to own and use firearms legally and responsibly and still put reasonable limits in place to keep guns out of the hands of people who will misuse them.

Is there anyone who believes it is an infringement of constitutional rights to say that no one who has been convicted of a felony should be allowed to purchase a firearm in America? That makes sense.

This weekend in Chicago convicted felons were out on the street with firearms firing away. We should do everything in our power to stop that from occurring. After all of the senseless tragedies which we have seen over the last several years--in Connecticut, in so many different places, even in the State of Illinois--is there anyone who argues with the premise that people who are so mentally unstable they cannot accept the responsibility of a firearm should not be allowed to buy a firearm? Two categories: Convicted felons, mentally unstable people, should not be allowed to purchase firearms in America, period.

We had the vote--a bipartisan vote. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is no liberal. Senator Manchin is a real conservative and pro- gun. He joined up with Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is about as conservative a Republican as you can find. Both Senators Manchin and Toomey came to the floor and said let us do background checks to make sure convicted felons and people who are mentally unstable cannot purchase a firearm. It failed. It failed because it faced a filibuster we couldn't break. The majority of Senators voted for it, but that wasn't enough because we needed 60 and we didn't have it. We lost a handful of Democrats and we attracted only a few Republicans to support us.

To me, that is not the end of the debate. It is time for us to revisit that issue. It is time for us to have another vote on the floor of the Senate. I am not sure the outcome will be much different, but we owe it to the people of this country to continue this debate, and we owe it as fellow Senators, Democrats and Republicans, to search for solutions.

Let me tell you another measure that could have helped in Chicago and other cities across America. There is a term called straw purchaser. A straw purchaser is someone who will walk into a gun store, present their identification, and purchase a firearm because they are legally entitled to purchase it, and then turn around and give it or sell it to someone who could not legally buy that same gun. Many times it turns out to be the girlfriend who is sent in to make the purchase. It is time to change that law. It is time to send out an all-points bulletin to the girlfriends of thugs that they are going to be sent away to prison for a long time for that kind of irresponsible act. Straw purchasers pass these guns into the community, and when they do, we know what happens: Innocent people die. That is another provision we should vote on on the floor of the Senate.

If there are colleagues who want to stand and defend the right of straw purchasers to buy guns and turn them over to convicted felons, be my guest. I want to hear that debate. Tell me how that is an exercise of your constitutional right. It is not.

I have thousands and thousands of people across Illinois who own firearms, who store them safely, use them legally, and enjoy their rights under the Constitution. Well, what I am suggesting today is not going to change

that at all, but they live in communities where people will misuse these firearms.

We have a moral responsibility in the Senate to do everything we can to keep firearms out of the hands of people who misuse them. We have a legal and moral responsibility to accept this opportunity in the Senate to debate these issues. We cannot run away from them any more than we can run away from the violence in our streets. I am not alone in my feelings on this issue. There are other Senators who share them. It is time for us to stand up and speak up. We have a responsibility to the people we represent, to innocent people who are being threatened and killed across America.

What happened in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend is a wakeup call--another wakeup call--to the Senate to get about the business of our purpose here, the reason we were elected--to try to make America a better and safer place.

Madam President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I am here to discuss the Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act, which is a bill my colleagues Senators Shaheen, Boxer, Gillibrand, and I introduced today. It will update the child and dependent care tax credit to offer working families more relief from the rising costs of childcare.

When the child and dependent care tax credit was enacted originally, kids were playing with Rubik's Cubes and listening to eight-track tapes. As we all know, a lot has changed since then, and one of the most important changes our country has seen since that time is the rise of women in the labor force.

Since the mid-1970s, women's participation in the labor force has increased by 23 percent, and most women now do work full time. In two- thirds of families with dependent children, both parents work outside the home.

Over a period of time in which the middle class has been squeezed by an increasingly global economy with higher prices for everything from health care to college, women joining the labor force has helped to ease some of those burdens for families. In fact, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has called the increasing participation of women in the workforce: ``A major factor in sustaining growing families incomes.'' A recent study by the Center for American Progress found between 1979 and 2012, the U.S. economy grew by 11 percent as a result of women joining the labor force.

As we look for ways to create jobs and expand growth in the 21st century, it is clear our country's economic success goes hand in hand with that of women and working families. We have to make sure our policies are updated to meet the needs of today's working parents, and one area we need to take a look at is childcare. The cost of childcare has skyrocketed in recent

years. Full-time childcare for just one child can cost families more than $10,000 annually, and for families below the poverty level--those who are already struggling the most to make ends meet--childcare can, on average, swallow one-third of what those parents are able to bring home.

This is a real problem for far too many hard-working parents, and it is a problem for our economy, because when parents are struggling to find reliable, safe, affordable care for their children during the day, it is harder for them to give their all on the job. Even worse, childcare is so expensive, some parents--most often mothers--are deciding it is not even worth returning to the workforce. This means families are being held back from gaining the economic security they are working so hard to achieve.

The child and dependent care tax credit was of course intended to help parents overcome these barriers, but today the benefit working parents get from the credit is a small fraction of what childcare actually costs. Because of how it is structured, the lowest income working families cannot benefit from it at all, meaning they have to bear the full brunt of childcare costs on very low wages.

It is clear this credit is one of the policies we need to bring into the 21st century, and that is exactly what we were doing when we introduced the Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act. This legislation will boost the benefit working families can receive for childcare costs, and it will make the child and dependent care tax credit refundable so those working parents who are struggling the most to make ends meet can better afford the childcare they need to work and support their families.

If Congress passes our bill, next year working families could see a credit of $1,600 for one child or $3,200 for more than one child. That is almost three times the maximum benefit many families are currently eligible to receive.

Our bill would be a real help to hard-working families who are trying to raise their children, pay the bills, save for college, and put something away for retirement. It could break down one of the biggest barriers mothers face when thinking about reentering the workforce.

The need to expand access to affordable childcare is something I often talk about with my own constituents in Washington State. During those conversations, what I hear from parents is: I am so glad you focused on this. It is a real issue for us.

Updating this tax credit to reflect the needs of families in today's economy would be a critical step forward in terms of our larger effort to ensure that working parents, dads and moms, have a fair shot.

I believe by putting in place policies to make childcare more affordable, make sure women get the equal pay they deserve by raising the minimum wage so millions of workers have a better shot at lifting themselves out of poverty, and by taking steps to ensure students are not overwhelmed by debt after they graduate from college, we could break down some very real barriers that are holding our families and our economy back. There is no reason we should not start that right now with the bill we are introducing today.

I hope all of our colleagues will take a minute, look at this-- Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act--and take this seriously. I hope we will be able to make it easier for moms and dads to afford safe reliable care for their children while they are at work. I think we can all agree parents deserve to have that peace of mind. I believe if we enact this bill and build on it with other critical policies to help working families, our economy will be much stronger now and over the long term.

I thank Senators Shaheen, Boxer, and Gillibrand again for all of their hard work and leadership on the part of working families.

Mr. President, I am here to discuss the Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act, which is a bill my colleagues Senators Shaheen, Boxer, Gillibrand, and I introduced today. It will update the child and dependent care tax credit to offer working families more relief from the rising costs of childcare.

When the child and dependent care tax credit was enacted originally, kids were playing with Rubik's Cubes and listening to eight-track tapes. As we all know, a lot has changed since then, and one of the most important changes our country has seen since that time is the rise of women in the labor force.

Since the mid-1970s, women's participation in the labor force has increased by 23 percent, and most women now do work full time. In two- thirds of families with dependent children, both parents work outside the home.

Over a period of time in which the middle class has been squeezed by an increasingly global economy with higher prices for everything from health care to college, women joining the labor force has helped to ease some of those burdens for families. In fact, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has called the increasing participation of women in the workforce: ``A major factor in sustaining growing families incomes.'' A recent study by the Center for American Progress found between 1979 and 2012, the U.S. economy grew by 11 percent as a result of women joining the labor force.

As we look for ways to create jobs and expand growth in the 21st century, it is clear our country's economic success goes hand in hand with that of women and working families. We have to make sure our policies are updated to meet the needs of today's working parents, and one area we need to take a look at is childcare. The cost of childcare has skyrocketed in recent

years. Full-time childcare for just one child can cost families more than $10,000 annually, and for families below the poverty level--those who are already struggling the most to make ends meet--childcare can, on average, swallow one-third of what those parents are able to bring home.

This is a real problem for far too many hard-working parents, and it is a problem for our economy, because when parents are struggling to find reliable, safe, affordable care for their children during the day, it is harder for them to give their all on the job. Even worse, childcare is so expensive, some parents--most often mothers--are deciding it is not even worth returning to the workforce. This means families are being held back from gaining the economic security they are working so hard to achieve.

The child and dependent care tax credit was of course intended to help parents overcome these barriers, but today the benefit working parents get from the credit is a small fraction of what childcare actually costs. Because of how it is structured, the lowest income working families cannot benefit from it at all, meaning they have to bear the full brunt of childcare costs on very low wages.

It is clear this credit is one of the policies we need to bring into the 21st century, and that is exactly what we were doing when we introduced the Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act. This legislation will boost the benefit working families can receive for childcare costs, and it will make the child and dependent care tax credit refundable so those working parents who are struggling the most to make ends meet can better afford the childcare they need to work and support their families.

If Congress passes our bill, next year working families could see a credit of $1,600 for one child or $3,200 for more than one child. That is almost three times the maximum benefit many families are currently eligible to receive.

Our bill would be a real help to hard-working families who are trying to raise their children, pay the bills, save for college, and put something away for retirement. It could break down one of the biggest barriers mothers face when thinking about reentering the workforce.

The need to expand access to affordable childcare is something I often talk about with my own constituents in Washington State. During those conversations, what I hear from parents is: I am so glad you focused on this. It is a real issue for us.

Updating this tax credit to reflect the needs of families in today's economy would be a critical step forward in terms of our larger effort to ensure that working parents, dads and moms, have a fair shot.

I believe by putting in place policies to make childcare more affordable, make sure women get the equal pay they deserve by raising the minimum wage so millions of workers have a better shot at lifting themselves out of poverty, and by taking steps to ensure students are not overwhelmed by debt after they graduate from college, we could break down some very real barriers that are holding our families and our economy back. There is no reason we should not start that right now with the bill we are introducing today.

I hope all of our colleagues will take a minute, look at this-- Helping Working Families Afford Child Care Act--and take this seriously. I hope we will be able to make it easier for moms and dads to afford safe reliable care for their children while they are at work. I think we can all agree parents deserve to have that peace of mind. I believe if we enact this bill and build on it with other critical policies to help working families, our economy will be much stronger now and over the long term.

I thank Senators Shaheen, Boxer, and Gillibrand again for all of their hard work and leadership on the part of working families.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

I yield the floor.