A Conversation with Senator Katie Britt (R-AL)
Engage: You and your fellow senator are both parents. Your children are at different phases of your lives, but you obviously have had to juggle both child care and your working lives. How has that inspired your commitment to this issue?
Senator Britt: This is undoubtedly a very personal issue that I’m committed to solving. Senator Kaine and I both know how important child care is because we both went through it. I know firsthand there is no greater blessing in life than our children, and I understand the challenges women face during all seasons of motherhood. Accessing affordable child care has long been one of those challenges. I still remember how it felt to pay for our two babies to go to child care when Wesley and I moved to Birmingham — it was like writing checks for college. Today, child care costs are even higher, and it is affecting not just parents but our entire economy.
When the costs of child care are sky-high, parents face the painful question of whether it’s financially feasible to return to work. Unfortunately, this disproportionately affects women. And this is where it really becomes a large-scale workforce issue. Small businesses and industries in America right now face labor shortages — from agriculture and manufacturing to health care and education.
Engage: Your package includes two separate bills—one that addresses the cost of child care, but just as importantly, one that tackles the crisis in having enough people working in the child care workforce. How does your legislation seek to address this tremendous shortage?
Senator Britt: Senator Kaine’s and my legislative solution is two-pronged because it’s critical long-term to close the gap between supply and demand in child care. Lower supply leads to increased costs and decreased availability.
To address this challenge in a meaningful way, our legislation would create a pilot grant program to encourage states to offer competitive pay to keep current child care workers in the field while bringing in additional workers. State, local, and tribal governments could apply for the program, which is modeled on successful programs like the one in Virginia.
“Child care is not a red or a blue issue, it’s an American issue. There is clear bipartisan concern about the runaway cost of child care, and there is a real appetite to get this done.”
Engage: Polling shows overwhelming bipartisan support for new child care policies. Do you believe that 2025 offers a unique opportunity to find bipartisanship on this issue, which is so important to working families?
Senator Britt: Child care is not a red or a blue issue, it’s an American issue. There is clear bipartisan concern about the runaway cost of child care, and there is a real appetite to get this done. It was a topic that came up during the vice-presidential debate, where both Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz agreed that addressing child care needed to be a priority.
Senator Kaine and I agree. We’re excited to work on this together in 2025. The upcoming tax reform effort is a huge opportunity because our child care package is the kind of pro-family, pro-growth solution that will strengthen opportunity and prosperity for hardworking people across America.
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