Taking Care of Business: How Childcare Is Important for Regional Economies (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, February 6, 2020)
Summary
The printed record of a hearing, Taking Care of Business: How Childcare Is Important for Regional Economies, held February 6, 2020 by the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship of the House Committee on Small Business, Small Business Committee Document Number 116–070. Hon. Abby Finkenauer and Hon. Jim Hagedorn gave opening statements. Four witnesses testified: Cindy Cisneros, Vice President for Education Programs at the Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board; Dan Levi, President of Levi Architecture, PLC, Cedar Falls, IA, for the Black Hawk Child Care Coalition; Sarah Piepenburg, Owner of Vinaigrette, Minneapolis, MN, for Main Street Alliance; and Dr. Veronique de Rugy, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. The appendix carries their prepared statements and material from the First Five Years Fund.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
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“Taking Care of Business: How Childcare Is Important for Regional Economies (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, February 6, 2020).”
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TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: HOW CHILDCARE
IS IMPORTANT FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIES
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON RURAL DEVELOP-
MENT, AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
HEARING HELD
FEBRUARY 6, 2020
Small Business Committee Document Number 116–070
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
39–604 WASHINGTON : 2020
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
ABBY FINKENAUER, Iowa
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
JUDY CHU, California
MARC VEASEY, Texas
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa, Vice Ranking Member
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ROSS SPANO, Florida
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
MELISSA JUNG, Majority Staff Director
JUSTIN PELLETIER, Majority Deputy Staff Director
KEVIN FITZPATRICK, Staff Director
(II)
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CONTENTS
OPENING STATEMENTS
Hon. Abby Finkenauer ............................................................................................ 1
Hon. Jim Hagedorn ................................................................................................. 3
WITNESSES
Ms. Cindy Cisneros, Vice President, Education Programs, Committee for Eco-
nomic Development of the Conference Board (CED), Arlington, VA ............... 5
Mr. Dan Levi, President, Levi Architecture, PLC, Cedar Falls, IA, testifying
on behalf of the Black Hawk Child Care Coalition ........................................... 7
Ms. Sarah Piepenburg, Owner, Vinaigrette, Minneapolis, MN, testifying on
behalf of Main Street Alliance ............................................................................ 8
Dr. Veronique de Rugy, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George
Mason University, Arlington, VA ....................................................................... 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Ms. Cindy Cisneros, Vice President, Education Programs, Committee for
Economic Development of the Conference Board (CED), Arlington, VA .. 21
Mr. Dan Levi, President, Levi Architecture, PLC, Cedar Falls, IA, testi-
fying on behalf of the Black Hawk Child Care Coalition .......................... 33
Ms. Sarah Piepenburg, Owner, Vinaigrette, Minneapolis, MN, testifying
on behalf of Main Street Alliance ................................................................ 38
Dr. Veronique de Rugy, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George
Mason University, Arlington, VA ................................................................ 43
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
First Five Years Fund ...................................................................................... 50
(III)
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TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: HOW
CHILDCARE IS IMPORTANT FOR REGIONAL
ECONOMIES
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT, AGRICULTURE,
TRADE, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:08 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building. Hon. Abby Finkenauer
[chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Chabot, Finkenauer, Craig, Hagedorn,
and Stauber.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Good morning. The Committee will
come to order.
I want to make sure I thank everybody this morning for being
here, especially those who flew a long distance from Iowa or Min-
nesota. It means a lot that you are here to talk about this very im-
portant issue facing our country.
In Iowa, when I talk to employers about workforce development
and ways to bring new investment into our region, access to afford-
able childcare almost always comes up and it is almost always at
the top of the list.
Parents are turning down raises and promotions because they
are afraid to lose childcare assistance benefits or just leaving the
workforce all together because it is less expensive to stay home.
Our businesses are losing thousands of dollars due to employee
turnover because their workers cannot find reliable childcare. Jobs
are going unfilled, and employers are struggling to attract talent
because of the lack of affordable childcare in our communities. It
is feeding our state’s workforce shortages, and our entrepeneurs
are feeling the effects as well.
I met a young mom named Phoebe, who recently moved back to
Iowa and opened a restaurant in Cedar Rapids with her husband.
Her heart is in the business, but they are struggling to find
childcare for their new little one. They actually had to hire front-
house help that used to be Phoebe, which is kind of disappointing
because she wanted to be part of the business as much as possible
and now has had to step back partly because of the lack of
childcare. Fortunately, they actually have family in the area, so
they have been able to step up and help. But that is not the case
for everybody, and it should not have to be. In Iowa in particular,
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more than 350,000 kids live in communities where they do not
have access to childcare, meaning that thousands of parents are
being forced out of the workforce.
With the lowest unemployment rate of any state in the nation,
this is an issue that we cannot afford to ignore in Iowa, and Mr.
Levi, we are grateful you are here to talk about that. When parents
cannot access affordable childcare, the effects are felt across the en-
tire economy. This issue is especially pronounced in rural commu-
nities. In Iowa, more than one-third of our rural residents are liv-
ing in areas considered childcare deserts, places where demand for
childcare exceeds supply by more than three to one.
For our rural businesses that already struggle to attract talented
employees, access to childcare is another challenge they have to
overcome when it comes to recruitment and retention. Even in
areas where there are enough providers, childcare is so expensive
that some families cannot afford it.
Over the last decade, the cost of childcare has increased by 25
percent. A family of four in Iowa is paying as much as $1,300 a
month to cover the cost of childcare. Some of my colleagues here
today are from states where the average cost is much higher. In
some parts of the country, the cost of childcare is even as high as
college tuition.
When I talk to business owners about access to affordable
childcare, they want to be part of the solution. They do not want
people to have to choose between a paycheck and starting a family.
They know that a strong workforce is not just good for business—
it is good for the future of their community.
During today’s hearing, I hope to explore how childcare can drive
economic growth and help our small businesses thrive. We will look
at how access to childcare, along with policies like paid family
leave, can contribute to improved productivity and retention in the
workplace. Our witnesses will also speak to some of the challenges
and opportunities for small business owners who want to improve
access to childcare, not only for their employees but for their own
families as well.
Small businesses are much less likely than larger firms to offer
childcare benefits. For some small operations with razor-thin mar-
gins, they might not have the resources or the expertise to even
offer common benefits like childcare referral services or dependent
care assistance plans, let alone onsite child care.
Helping support small businesses and rural communities that
want to improve access to affordable childcare will be an important
part of our conversation here today.
I also want to take this opportunity to announce that later today
I will be helping introduce legislation led by my colleagues, Con-
gresswoman Susie Lee and Congressman Pete Stauber, who sits on
the Small Business Committee. This legislation would expand fi-
nancing options for childcare operations through the Small Busi-
ness Administration. Thank you for your leadership, Ms. Lee and
Mr. Stauber.
Today, we will also be hearing from Mr. Levi, who I talked about
earlier, who came all this way from Iowa and we are grateful that
he made the trip. His partnerships with nonprofit childcare centers
is an example of how we can improve access to care.
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Lastly, I hope to touch on the importance of our childcare pro-
viders who are often small business owners themselves. Whether
they operate a center or run their business out of their home, pro-
viders are the people on the ground trying to improve access. Fed-
eral proposals to increase access to affordable childcare will only
further drive demand for childcare services. For example, the Child
Care for Working Families Act would create 700,000 new jobs for
childcare providers. We are going to need our small businesses to
help meet this demand.
Thank you all again so much for being here today. It means a
great deal, and this is going to be a very important discussion and
something that we need to be having in Washington and across our
country.
I would now like to yield to our Ranking Member for the day,
Mr. Hagedorn.
Mr. HAGEDORN. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate
your fine opening statement. And you holding this hearing. It is a
very important issue. Something that many of us have been work-
ing toward. And I am also on that legislation with you, to make
sure that we can focus SBA monies to loans and so forth to get pro-
viders going. Very important.
So like health care, the childcare industry presents many chal-
lenges, especially for those in rural communities. Lack of access,
lack of choice, and high cost consistently discourages parents from
reentering the workforce. This reduces demand for the few
childcare entities in those areas and raises costs while eliminating
jobs. That is not good.
Programs like Head Start or suggested universal childcare pro-
grams may only fill part of the gap, but a vibrant private sector
option must be part of the calculus. And I think that is one of the
things that we are going to focus on today is to make sure that that
is available and there is great opportunity in those areas in the pri-
vate sector.
Each community, each parent, and each child has unique wants
and needs that are better served when choices are expanded. With
fewer restrictions and fewer regulations in those areas that do not
increase health and that do not decrease or in any way get in the
way of our health and safety outcomes for children, you know, more
opportunities are often provided. So, when there are more choices
for child care, parents are more likely to obtain full-time employ-
ment and promote economic developments in our communities.
In my home state of Minnesota, child care costs are over $16,000
per child annually, and that comprises about 21 percent of median
family income. I represent southern Minnesota, and in that our
largest city is Rochester, and the average cost in Rochester is ap-
proximately $1,200 per child per month. So, it is pretty extraor-
dinary when you think about it.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Serv-
ices, child care is considered affordable if it costs no more than 10
percent of a family’s income. Yet, Minnesota is not alone in being
unaffordable. In fact, every state in the union, including D.C., is
unaffordable by that standard. So that is quite something.
These costs only increase when variables, such as additional chil-
dren, medical requirements, and single parents are in the mix. So
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that is pretty much best-case scenario is $16,000 per child in Min-
nesota. That is best case scenario, and from there it gets higher.
I look forward to hearing the challenges presented within the
childcare industry and what we can do to reduce burdensome regu-
lations and costs within this field. I would note for the record that
there are people that have traveled even further from the great
state of Minnesota. I am looking forward to all the testimony from
our witnesses. And thanks again for holding this hearing.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Hagedorn. The
gentleman yields back.
If Committee members have an opening statement prepared, we
would ask that they be submitted for the record.
I would now like to take the opportunity to explain our timing
rules. Each witness gets 5 minutes for testimony. There is a light-
ing system to assist you. The green light will be on when you
begin, and the yellow light will come on when you have 1 minute
remaining. The red light comes on when you are out of time, and
we ask that you stay within the timeframe to the best of your abil-
ity.
I would now like to introduce our witnesses who have taken time
again away from their families and their businesses to be here
today for this important hearing.
Our first witness is Ms. Cindy Cisneros. Ms. Cisneros is the vice
president of Education Programs at the Committee for Economic
Development. She is responsible for leading their portfolio of edu-
cation work, which includes early childhood education, K-12, post-
secondary, and workforce development. Ms. Cisneros has in-depth
experience providing technical assistance to state and district edu-
cators on the successful implementation of national education laws.
She previously worked for the U.S. Department of Education.
Thank you so much, Ms. Cisneros, for being here today.
Our second witness is from my district, Mr. Daniel Levi from
Cedar Falls. Mr. Levi is the principal and owner of Levi Architec-
ture, an Iowa small business. Levi Architecture has worked on a
variety of projects, including commercial, industrial, residential,
and educational, with a special interest in childcare facilities. Mr.
Levi has been instrumental in development of childcare infrastruc-
ture. Through his work as a board member of Exceptional Persons,
Inc., and the Black Hawk County Child Care Coalition, which is an
incredible organization and group of folks, Mr. Levi has been work-
ing alongside community partners, businesses, and childcare pro-
viders to address the need for childcare in northeast Iowa.
Thank you for all that you do and for taking time away from
your business and your family to be here. We look forward to hear-
ing from you.
Our third witness is Ms. Sarah Piepenburg.
Ms. Piepenburg is the owner of Vinaigrette, a family-owned and
operated food store in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with five employees.
A former HR consultant, Ms. Piepenburg and her husband have
firsthand experience struggling to find affordable childcare for their
family, and they work hard to provide a supportive work environ-
ment for their employees. Ms. Piepenburg is the mother of three,
a board member of Ripples of Kindness, the Minnesota
Breastfeeding Coalition, and a member of Main Street Alliance.
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Thank you for taking time away from your business and your
family and traveling all the way here.
I would now like to yield to our Ranking Member for the day,
Mr. Hagedorn, to introduce our final witness.
Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that.
Our final witness today is Veronique de Rugy. Doctor, before I
go any further, did I get that close? All right. That is not too bad.
You know, for southern Minnesota, not too bad.
A senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason
University, where I went to school, George Mason, a fine institu-
tion of higher learning. Her expertise includes the U.S. economy
and taxation. Before her tenure at the Mercatus Center, she was
a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy an-
alyst at the Cato Institute, and a research fellow at the Atlas Eco-
nomic Research Foundation. She also oversaw academic programs
in France for the Institute for Humane Studies here, received her
M.A. in Economics from Paris Dauphine University, and her Ph.D.
in Economics from the Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
All that pretty good so far? Good.
In addition to her extensive knowledge and expertise in econom-
ics, she is an acclaimed writer with articles published in the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many others. She was
named one of Politico’s Top 50 Thinkers, Doers, and Visionaries
Transforming American Politics in 2015. Thank you for taking time
to speak with us. We look forward to your testimony.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Hagedorn.
Now I would like to recognize Ms. Cisneros for your opening
statement.
STATEMENTS OF CINDY CISNEROS, VICE PRESIDENT, EDU-
CATION PROGRAMS, COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOP-
MENT OF THE CONFERENCE BOARD; DAN LEVI, PRESIDENT,
LEVI ARCHITECTURE, PLC; SARAH PIEPENBURG, OWNER,
VINAIGRETTE; VERONIQUE DE RUGY, SENIOR RESEARCH
FELLOW, MERCATUS CENTER, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
STATEMENT OF CINDY CISNEROS
Ms. CISNEROS. Good morning. My name is Cindy Cisneros and
I serve as the vice president of Education Programs at the Com-
mittee for Economic Development, or CED, which is the public pol-
icy center of The Conference Board (TCB), and it is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan, business member-driven organization. Our business
leaders know that a skilled workforce is paramount to economic
prosperity.
From CED’s perspective, access to quality affordable child care is
a two-generation strategy. It helps fuel economic growth by sup-
porting working parents and supporting the healthy development
of young children.
Americans are working today, including mothers of very young
children. Over 15 million children under age 6 have working par-
ents.
In 2019, CED released a study, Child Care in State Economies,
which reviewed the use of child care by families and the economic
impact on states. We found that child care is an industry that
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plays a significant role in economic growth. The industry, which in-
cludes both center-based and home-based child care, had a total
economic impact in 2016 of $99.3 billion. This includes $47.2 billion
in revenue, plus another $52.1 billion in spillover in other indus-
tries.
Service industries of comparable size include medical labs at $47
billion, and spectator sports at $46 billion. In terms of jobs, the
spending of 1.5 million sole proprietors, or home-based providers,
and wage and salary employees in the childcare sector, support
more than 507,000 workers in other industry for a total jobs impact
of over 2 million.
CED’s study analyzed the use of market-based care—that is paid
childcare services using the U.S. Census Bureau Economic Census,
County Business Pattern Data, as well as Non-employer Statistics
data from 2016.
Without access to child care, parents reduce their hours or opt
out of the workforce, and 94 percent of those are women. The use
of paid child care is highest among two-parent families working full
time at 88 percent, and single-parent families working 35 hours or
more per week at 83 percent. Both family types far exceed the
overall usage rate of 59 percent.
Families regularly struggle with the availability, affordability,
and quality of child care. Employers are impacted, with some esti-
mates by more than $4.4 billion per year in lost productivity. Just
last week, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment esti-
mated that parents forego about $30 to $35 billion in income be-
cause of challenges with child care.
The supply of child care is uneven across communities. Childcare
centers open in areas where the population is dense enough and
has sufficient income to sustain a viable business model. Of con-
cern, particularly in rural areas is the decline in family childcare
homes, which we estimated at 20 percent over the past 10 years.
For home-based providers, the hours are long, and the fees charged
to parents do not offer an economic incentive to stay in business.
Average revenue is only about $15,000 per year, which is below the
poverty line for even a family of two.
The current business model for childcare centers, which also de-
pends on parent fees, is challenged to keep rates low enough for
parents to pay but high enough to hire and retain high-quality
staff. This has led to a childcare workforce that earns low wages
at about $11 an hour and has high turnover. And yet, the childcare
workforce is critical as it is the workforce that literally supports all
other workforces.
There is no easy way to make quality child care more available
and affordable. However, there are approaches that can be consid-
ered.
First, the National Academy of Sciences released a report in 2018
suggesting ways to better finance our Nation’s childcare system.
CED was represented in a NAS public hearing to inform that re-
port with a business leader perspective. This set of recommenda-
tions is worth reviewing.
Second, to help fill the gap between what parents can afford to
pay and a livable wage for individuals working in child care, Con-
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gress could enact a refundable workforce tax credit that is linked
to achieved competencies in early childhood education.
Third, expand Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs).
Child care is a business, yet many who operate within the childcare
industry know early childhood but not best business practices.
SBDCs could be required to partner with state childcare agencies
to offer business technical assistance for centers and homes.
Thank you for your time today. I am pleased to answer any ques-
tions.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Ms. Cisneros.
Now, Mr. Levi, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DAN LEVI
Mr. LEVI. Thank you very much. Appreciate the opportunity to
speak today.
My involvement with child care started through a very personal
opportunity with a nonprofit we are associated with that houses
our childcare resource and referral. We had a recruitment and re-
tention problem. Part of that issue is the pay structure. We had op-
portunities but our community was not involved in the conversa-
tion that child care was a legitimate crisis in our area, and it is
a crisis in our county.
Over the last 5 years, the trends are we have lost 37 percent of
the childcare centers in our area, and it is continually impacting
my clients in my professional practice where they are unable to ex-
pand due to lack of talent.
So, we decided to attack the problem through a coalition of vol-
unteers called the Black Hawk County Child Care Coalition, spe-
cifically addressing the private sector, making this a bottom-line
issue, a cost issue, a quality control issue, and a recruitment issue.
The state of Iowa has record-low unemployment as we have seen
across the Nation. We have had this conversation with CEOs,
CFOs, decision-makers at small- and medium-size businesses
across our area to try to impede on them what the impact is if they
are willing to listen. And many businesses already had the data
and are now looking into that data.
Our coalition quickly expanded, and we were asked to expand
our reach just beyond our county. We are now into counties all
across the state of Iowa, and all of these small towns have the
same thing. They say we have a lack of talent for our businesses
to expand and we have moms and dads moving away from our
small towns. It is hurting rural economies. It is hurting our com-
munities. We are seeing school districts reduce in size.
Child care can be one of those economic drivers in the smaller
communities. We have a series of examples that we have been en-
gaged with, one of which is work through the Iowa Women’s Foun-
dation where we created a Center in a Box. It is not a very creative
name but what we did provide was communities an opportunity to
see what a child care actually could look like on paper in terms of
its size and its cost while meting all of the state requirement regu-
lations. The most important piece to that is a business plan that
goes along with that model so these communities can understand
what it is going to take not only to start a center from a startup
cost standpoint, but also sustainability. We cannot have centers
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that open and close. It hurts the economy. It hurts the vitality of
our small communities. And leaves moms and dads in a very dif-
ficult position where they may choose not to be employed any
longer. Mr. Hagedorn brought that up specifically in his opening
statement. We see that on a regular basis.
So, what we have done is when we get into these communities
through volunteerism, we talk to them about the resources that
they need and the resources that they may have available to them.
They simply do not know in many of these communities, they have
neither the expertise, the talent, or the experience to understand
how to attack these problems. When we involve the private sector
and we partner with our school districts and we partner with other
nonprofits and foundations, rather than just adding together our
resources of varying types, we actually can multiply those re-
sources to create something much better than we could when we
try to do it all on our own.
The smaller the community, the more important the school dis-
trict can be in that they have different types of resources. Busi-
nesses have different types of resources that they can bring to the
table that moms and dads do not. And when we start to get the
private sector to understand that this is a black and white issue
for them, this is a bottom-line issue for them, they have willingly
come to the table and enthusiastically get involved in our conversa-
tions.
In one example in Cedar Falls we have a co-op opportunity
where we have major businesses sponsoring, and in exchange, they
take down one of the two significant barriers to child care, access.
In Black Hawk County, the average center has 37 kids on the
waiting list. It could take a year or more to get a child into your
center. When businesses partner in this way, they have guaranteed
slots in the center. Then, on top of that, if they choose, they have
the flexibility to also supplement or provide benefits to their em-
ployees to reduce the cost, but we leave that up to the individual
employer. So, we try to create a system where there are flexible op-
tions to bring on different resources, people with different talents,
people with different interests and different scales at all times. We
found that this model works very well, and it is scalable, and it has
been very successful across the state of Iowa so far.
Specific examples of how policy, not more money, can make sig-
nificant change is the state of Iowa has tied the quality rating sys-
tem to centers to change the reimbursement structure on childcare
assistance, which encourages centers to either expand the number
of children that they take on assistance, or it actually makes them
break even on that, reducing the incentive to cap their childcare as-
sistance.
Thank you very much.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much, Mr. Levi, for
being here.
Ms. Piepenburg, you are recognized now for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF SARAH PIEPENBURG
Ms. PIEPENBURG. Chairwoman Finkenauer and members of
the committee, thank you for this opportunity to testify today about
how a robust infrastructure for child care would
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support my small business and other Main Street businesses.
My name is Sarah Piepenburg, and I am a small business owner
of Vinaigrette, a specialty oil and vinegar shop in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. I have been running my business since 2009 and cur-
rently have five employees. I am a member of Main Street Alliance,
a national network of more than 30,000 small business owners.
In Minnesota, we have the fourth highest costs in the Nation for
infant care with the average cost for enrolling a Minnesota infant
in a childcare center running $310 per week, or over $16,000 per
year.
For 2 years after we had our son, we did our best to piece to-
gether daycare and work. We sat on countless waitlists. I even de-
layed taking a job until my son had aged out of the most expensive
infant care category, which costs more than in-state college tuition.
I then took a part-time job and put my son in part-time child
care. Even with all our juggling, I was still only taking home $244
a paycheck after childcare expenses.
It did not seem worth it. I quit my job to stay home, but I knew
we would have to find another solution.
My husband and I became small business owners for a reason
that does not fit neatly into our marketing materials. We needed
child care and we could not make it work any other way.
For my husband and me, the best choice was to go into business
ourselves, arranging our schedules as best we could, and getting
help with child care from family and friends. We used the $16,000
we would have put into child care to launch our business.
While this may seem like an extreme solution, it is more common
that you might think. In a Small Business Majority survey of small
business owners, 29 percent stated that lack of access to child care
was a major reason for starting their own business, due to the need
for increased flexibility in their work schedules. But an even larger
portion of entrepreneurs surveyed, 36 percent, say the lack of ac-
cess
to affordable, high-quality child care is a barrier to their busi-
ness.
Small businesses like mine operate on thin margins and cannot
match the more generous childcare benefits offered by larger em-
ployers, resulting in a hiring disadvantage. A more robust childcare
infrastructure would level the playing field between small and
large businesses. Even if parents can afford child care, they often
cannot find it. In my state, for example, 44 percent of Minnesotans
live in a child-care desert, where there are simply no spots for any-
one. That is lower than the average. More than half of families in
America live in childcare deserts, areas where licensed child care
is scarce and does not meet the needs for the number of children
in the area.
Rural and low-income urban communities are hit hardest by this
lack of childcare infrastructure. Creating childcare infrastructure
in these communities would increase labor force participation
among parents driving local economic growth.
Work schedules are also a challenge. Most daycares close at 6
p.m., but my shop opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. Finding
childcare coverage is even more complicated for shift workers and
24-hour employees in other industries.
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We need innovative solutions like the Child Care for Working
Families Act to address the crisis from three fronts: maintaining
quality, ensuring jobs, and capping costs for families.
Passing Paid Family and Medical Leave would also help solve a
key part of the childcare puzzle. A social insurance program like
the Family Act would provide families with two caregivers up to 24
weeks of key bonding time with a new infant and 6 months less
of expensive infant child care. That is why small businesses over-
whelmingly support paid family and medical leave policies like the
Family Act.
All of these challenges affect a robust small business economy. If
we believe in small business, we need our lawmakers to change
this system. Child care is not only a family issue; it is an economic
one, too.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much, Ms.
Piepenburg. Again, we really appreciate that you came here all the
way from Minnesota.
Now we would like to recognize Dr. de Rugy for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF VERONIQUE DE RUGY
Ms. DE RUGY. Ms. Chairwoman, Mr. Ranking Member, and
members of this Commitmtee, thank you for having me today to
testify.
Ensuring that a family can afford to raise children in America
is an uncontroversial public policy concern. Many families have dif-
ficulty finding affordable and quality child care. In some places like
Washington, D.C., daycare for infants and children younger than
preschool age costs an average of $24,00 per child. This is a serious
problem for most parents, especially for lower-income parents.
Thankfully, not all states face the same childcare cost burden.
But understanding what is driving the cost of child care in some
areas and not others is key to designing the right policy. Before we
start throwing more money at the problem or assuring new regula-
tions, we must look at one important barrier to affordable childcare
provision, and that is childcare licensing laws and requirements.
I will share here three main findings from the academic lit-
erature on the issue.
First, however well-intentioned, the imposition of strict licensing
requirements actually restricts the supply of health care and make
it harder for families by raising prices.
Two, strict licensing requirements raise barriers to jobs for
childcare workers.
Three, this increase in cost is not accompanied by commen-
surable increase in quality or safety.
So, what comes next in my testimony is an overview of the eco-
nomic literature on occupational licensing across industries.
So, first, licensing requirements generally restrict the supply of
services in a licensed industry by prohibiting some perfectly com-
petent workers from working as a provider.
Occupational licensing laws also impose a high cost on the em-
ployees by forcing them to pay high fees, undergo many days of
training or experience, or earn arbitrary certification.
My written testimony includes some charts to that respect.
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By restricting competition between providers, occupational licens-
ing also increases the price of goods and services for consumers.
An often-cited report by the Obama Administration Council on
Economic Advisors found that licensing laws can increase prices by
16 percent. Higher prices are hurting low-income consumers the
most, obviously.
Second, licensing hurts low-income workers as well. Economist
Morris Kleiner found that restrictions from occupational licensing
can result in up to 2.85 million fewer jobs nationwide and an an-
nual cost to consumers of $203 billion. The Obama Administra-
tion’s report noted that these costs fall disproportionately on cer-
tain segments of the population—immigrants, military spouses,
and reformed convicts.
Other research supports these findings. Licensing laws are also
a serious impediment to income ability by making it more difficult
for low-income Americans who reach the first rung in their climb
out of poverty.
In addition, these licenses also operate as a substantial barrier
to interstate mobility; hence, better labor markets as the licensing
requirements vary between states and cannot transfer usually from
state to state.
Third, licensing requirements are often justified on the ground of
quality control and public safety, and in theory, licenses might in-
crease quality if it acts as a well-designed screening system. But
on the other hand, it might decrease quality by limiting competi-
tion.
Reviews of the academic literature suggests that the two effects
cancel each other out, though more studies find that licensing re-
duces quality then find that it enhances it.
Finally, the occupational licensing literature that focuses on
childcare industries specifically reveal exactly the same pattern.
Excessive staff-to-child ratio education or parking requirements in-
crease the cost to the supplier, restrict the supply, and ultimately
increase the price for parents.
The solution to the current shortage of affordable care is not to
drive costs higher with more money and more regulations. The first
step is for state and local officials to look at ways to reduce exces-
sive regulations that contribute to the high cost of child care.
For instance, estimates suggest that relaxing the average man-
date staff-to-child ratio by just one child across all age groups
would reduce childcare prices by 10 percent or more. In Minnesota,
that is $1,600. In D.C., it is $2,400. I mean, it is important.
In order to fight the high childcare costs and lack of child care
availability, Arlington County where I live, the County Board
adopted a change to allow small, in-home daycare providers to care
for up to nine kids without having to go through the county’s exten-
sive use permitting process. They also reduced parking require-
ments for childcare centers after business owners complained they
were extensive and county staff found parking spaces were often
unused. Other state and local governments follow this example.
But I want to leave you with one warning. While these reforms
might not be the whole answer to the challenge of high childcare
costs, a failure to make these challenges will make other reforms
by the Federal Government ineffective. Thank you.
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Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Dr. de Rugy, for being
here today as well.
Now we will start our questions. I yield myself 5 minutes, and
I would like to start with Mr. Levi.
One thing I know you talked about in your testimony was the
fact that people are struggling to move back to Iowa, or they are
even leaving, because they cannot find childcare. I have seen this
firsthand. I am 31 now. I have a lot of friends that I graduated
high school with who went off to college, would love to move back
home, raise their family, and be close to mom and dad in Iowa.
However, they are struggling to do it, facing barriers related to jobs
or to childcare. This is such a huge issue, so thank you so much
for all that you have done with the Black Hawk County Child Care
Coalition.
One of the things I know you talk about with the Black Hawk
County Child Care Coalition is the ‘‘Child Care Center in a Box,’’
which offers sample budgets, business plans, and other resources
for childcare centers. That is huge.
Can you talk about the need for this type of support and tech-
nical assistance, how folks are reacting to it, and what you think
we can be doing to make sure that more people have the assistance
that you have been putting out there?
Mr. LEVI. Sure. I would be happy to.
Again, the Black Hawk County Child Care Coalition was formed
to address the crisis in Black Hawk County specifically. And as we
started to do some speaking engagements, as our childcare resource
referral department headed through EPI is doing talks over 19
counties, they started to get more and more inquiries. We started
to see that this was far beyond our issue of just Black Hawk Coun-
ty. To do that Child Care in a Box, we partnered with the Iowa
Women’s Foundation who was across the state and regularly fields
these questions of we also have a childcare problem. What can we
do about it? We do not know what the next steps are. A small com-
munity, again, lacks the expertise and the experience. They would
be referred to our coalition. We would pile in the car and make a
road trip.
And so now we found ourselves over about two-thirds of the state
now, which does not speak to our expertise. It speaks to the need
and the lack of expertise and the lack of resources that small com-
munities have, not knowing even how to address the problem.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Yeah. Have you found federal re-
sources to expand on these efforts at all?
Mr. LEVI. No.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. No?
Mr. LEVI. It is all at the state or volunteer level.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Yeah. Thank you for everything
that you are doing. This is where we really need to be stepping up
in this area.
Ms. Cisneros, I know you had the opportunity to hear from Mr.
Levi as well about his efforts to partner with businesses to start
childcare centers in northeast Iowa. We know that more invest-
ment from the federal level is needed to address the childcare cri-
sis. However, we also need an ‘‘all hands on deck,’’ approach to
solve this.
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Can you talk about successful public-private partnerships that
have been implemented to address this issue similar to Mr. Levi’s
or in that same space?
Ms. CISNEROS. Yes. It is inspiring to hear what Mr. Levi had
shared. There is a lot of creativity happening out there in the
states. And there really are some innovative public-private partner-
ships, and that is something that CED has also promoted in terms
of problem solving.
One aspect in terms of thinking about these issues is really
bringing all stakeholders or nontraditional stakeholders, like the
business community, together.
So, we have an example from Minnesota that we wanted to high-
light, and that is First Children’s Finance, which is headquartered
in Minneapolis. And it is a nonprofit financial intermediary that
works not only in Minnesota but also in 12 other states throughout
the Midwest. And First Children’s Finance, they provide loans and
grants to expand the supply of child care and improve the quality,
and also provide that much-needed technical assistance on running
a business and being a business owner. They work directly with
communities in both urban and rural areas. They help actually
launch new childcare businesses, and they help provide support,
again, to better manage the business aspects of operating a
childcare business. And they help businesses expand.
I thought these were great details about the project, and it has
involved 19 rural communities. It has created 533 new childcare
slots, 583 participants came together in town halls to develop right
size solutions to increase the supply of affordable child care, and
87 percent of childcare businesses that participated in the project
improved their business model.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Interesting. Well, we are running
out of time here, but I do want to ask you one other question.
How would you change or improve the Child Care Development
Block Grant to improve access to childcare and better support pub-
lic-private partnerships?
Ms. CISNEROS. In brief, wow, that is a big question because it
does not really address the supply of child care. But it could be con-
sidering different uses of the Child Care and Development Block
Grant such as for construction and things related to facilities and
the condition of facilities. So, while the reauthorization in 2014 did
put a higher emphasis on safety and development for kids, there
are other considerations for use of that money to states as well.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you so much. Again, I ap-
preciate your expertise and being here today.
With that, I am out of time, so I will yield to Mr. Hagedorn for
5 minutes.
Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Like I said at the beginning, it is a very important issue, and we
talk with folks all across southern Minnesota and elsewhere about
how difficult it is across the board. Obviously for our families with
the extreme cost. I mean, that is taking money out of their back
pockets and it is putting enormous pressure on our families. And
from that standpoint alone it is an issue that we are going to con-
tinue to work on this, but we should be focused on it very intently.
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The other part of it though is when you get into some of the
rural areas that I represent, you can get into towns where they do
not have any providers. And then you start to think, well, how is
that town going to continue to thrive and maintain its schools, be-
cause it is tough to attract teachers in who might be of child-bear-
ing age, for instance, if you cannot find anybody to take care of the
kids and you have to travel 20-30 miles for that. Pretty soon they
will want to go to some other town to teach. And on it goes.
And so, you know, across the board, do we support the tax cred-
its? Of course. Yes. And I think they need to be increased from
even where they were under the tax bill. Individual Tax Reform is
coming along so that is something that I am going to support
wholeheartedly.
But then we get into you talk about the different types of pro-
viders. So, Julie Eberhart of Rochester, she is an in-home provider
as is another lady that I spoke with in Springfield. Two different
towns. One is 115,000 people, the other is 2,000. But Ms. Eberhart
tells me that these regulations in Minnesota are just unbearable.
We started printing them out. There are 250 pages of them here.
There is another 150 to 200 pages of them, just the state of Min-
nesota, what they have to comply. So, if you are an in-home pro-
vider, you need to figure out what is in all this paperwork and then
you have to comply with it. And that is on top of the work that you
do which is incredible. It is driving up your costs, making your life
miserable. So, we are going to encourage the state of Minnesota to
make sure that this is streamlined, and we can do everything pos-
sible.
But Doctor, you mentioned this a little bit. Could you maybe ex-
pand upon the cost and the enormous problems that they face be-
cause of these regulations?
Ms. DE RUGY. Yeah. I mean, it is unquestionably a real prob-
lem. And as I said at the end of my oral testimony, I actually think
that this is the number one thing to focus on because you can sub-
sidize, you can give tax credits, you can do all of that stuff. If you
do not actually do the fundamental work to lower the cost of being
a supplier and being willing to supply, because here you are talk-
ing about the cost for people who are already in the business. But
what is harder to see is all the people who do not get into the busi-
ness precisely because of these costs. And the academic literature
seems to suggest that it is not insignificant. It does really shrink
the supply of child care. So, this should be the number one priority.
The question for the Federal Government is what can the Fed-
eral Government do? And that is the hardest question because
these are state and local regulations. I do think that there is hope
because there is a big bipartisan movement right now to try to kind
of highlight the cost of these regulations, but it is certainly, I think,
the number one problem.
Let me just say, you are trying to expand child care or make
child care more affordable by subsidizing it. The problem is, if you
subsidize it, you may increase the demand, right, and that increase
in demand may trigger an increase in the supply but it will not be
enough if the regulations are so strict that no one wants to get in.
And what you are going to have is basically an extra increase in
the price of child care. So, it is going to be counterproductive. This
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is why it is important to focus on this first because it is going to
make any other policies you are trying to put in place not effective.
Mr. HAGEDORN. Point well taken.
So, Mr. Levi, I appreciate what you are doing and encouraging,
for example, businesses to partner up. The City of Luverne, I was
just there a couple weeks ago. They have a childcare issue, and I
was talking with the mayor and others and I said, you know,
maybe one of the deals is, you have a very forward-thinking city
here, maybe some of these businesses, they are expanding, about
400 jobs in a city of 5,000, so what are they going to do with the
kids? So, you start getting the businesses to partner together, and
I would open it up to anyone, what can we do at the Federal level
to facilitate that? To make sure that that is possible and to encour-
age that? Because that seems to make a lot of sense.
Mr. LEVI. The encouragement of getting, especially in small,
rural communities, getting businesses to move to those commu-
nities or to expand, child care is obviously a significant issue. If you
would tie dollars to mandated public-private partnerships, require
communities to step up to the plate in a more significant way than
they have been. That means the private sector needs to get in-
volved because they have to understand this is affecting their bot-
tom line. And if we want to get real movement on that, the private
sector has to come to the table on this. This cannot be just the Fed-
eral Government paying for it, but it has to be something where
we are tying any kind of assistance, be it CDGB funds or other pro-
grams, it has to be tied to a partnership.
Mr. HAGEDORN. I do not know if I want to mandate and do
those types of things. I just want to see that if they have the inter-
est, that we do not stand in their way and we do everything we
can to facilitate it. But I think the competition that the doctor and
others were talking about makes the most sense.
With that I will yield back. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Hagedorn.
With that, I will recognize my good friend from Minnesota, Ms.
Craig, for 5 minutes.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
I would just like to note for the record that we have perfect at-
tendance from Minnesota on this Committee this morning. It is a
great bipartisan delegation. So, it is great to be here.
Honestly, I have four boys, and they are 22, 22, 21, and 16, and
I am having flashbacks of multiple car seats in the back seats here
this morning. So, thank you. Thank you for that anxiety-ridden
morning, Madam Chairwoman.
Look, this is a critical issue across my congressional district and
across the state of Minnesota. And what is stunning is it is so
interrelated to the other issues that we face in our local commu-
nities. For example, the great city of Red Wing in my congressional
district, we have got good jobs. What we do not have is affordable,
accessible housing and child care. In fact, my local businesses often
tell me that they have got an employee who is willing to move from
the cities to Red Wing and there is a 9 month waitlist for daycare
or child care in that community, and that is just something that
parents really struggle with in our community.
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So, I will start with Ms. Cisneros just with a question. Especially
in our small cities and our rural communities, at the Federal level,
what would you have us really focus on? And then I am interested
in Mr. Levi’s response to sort of the regulation question. And then
Ms. Piepenburg, you, being from Minnesota as well, anything that
you would have to add to that.
Ms. CISNEROS. So I definitely agree, it is an issue trying to fig-
ure out how to really create additional supply in rural areas. And
we have talked about this partnership approach is really a primary
strategy. There are a number of states who have really just taken
it upon themselves and their communities to figure out with em-
ployers because they know employers need to rely on employees.
Employees need to know that there is available child care. That
will help draw industry. So, it is really pulling together and prob-
lem solving at a very local level. And so, we would support that
type of grassroots approach rather than trying to mandate some-
thing at the Federal level.
There are a lot of communities, such as in Charlotte, North Caro-
lina, who came together and the business leaders decided they
wanted to expand these opportunities and create more access for
children, for 4-year-olds in terms of pre-K, and they funded a feasi-
bility study and they got together with the county and said we are
going to invest in this. They ultimately provided funding for schol-
arships so that they could get more educators, early educators into
the field to help increase the supply.
Ms. CRAIG. Is there an increased role for SBA in financing and
helping to start up these businesses?
Ms. CISNEROS. I think we would need more information in
terms of what is really the need. If it was available, how would it
be utilized? And with loans, it is challenging because you have to
present a viable payback plan. And so, for this type of industry, not
a lot of income, not a lot of annual revenue, and that could be prob-
lematic, but I think it is worth exploring.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you.
Mr. Levi, would you care to comment on the regulation point my
colleague made a moment ago and just where I should be focused
on this?
Mr. LEVI. Certainly. There are two kinds of regulations. There
is obviously the licensing, the programmatic side, and then there
is the physical plan. And so obviously, as an architect, I am going
to go into facilities existing and new facilities and look at the phys-
ical plan. The State of Iowa administrative code combined with the
building code is pretty strict. It has some very significant barriers,
especially on renovation of existing buildings. It makes it extremely
hard to be cost effective. If you really want to make some change
about competition and you want to make these businesses, people
expand and get into the industry, it needs to be profitable. So, it
is an actual career path for individuals. And the only way you are
going to do that is you have to attack the number one cost and that
is labor cost. We design buildings specifically, very detail-oriented,
around the student-teacher ratio. Classrooms are exact minimum
sizes to maximize those ratios. You cannot have six infants in a
room when your ratio is one-to-four. That room has to be sized ex-
actly for four or eight or 12. It has to be on that ratio. If you
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change that ratio, we can change room sizes. We can get more kids
in the room and we can reduce the cost across the individual stu-
dents. That is going to change the bottom-line profit and loss of a
childcare center.
Ms. CRAIG. Ms. Piepenburg, I did not leave you any time so
maybe we will come back to you in a moment.
With that, Madam Chair, I yield back.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you very much, Ms. Craig.
We have the other Minnesotan. I would like to introduce Mr.
Stauber, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Contracting and
Infrastructure.
Mr. Stauber, you have 5 minutes.
Mr. STAUBER. Thank you, Chairwoman Finkenauer, and Rank-
ing Member Hagedorn, for allowing me to speak at this Sub-
committee hearing today.
We all know child care is a pressing issue for many individuals
in my district, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a
part of this conversation this morning.
With more and more parents choosing to dually work and raise
their family, child care is hurting across the Nation now more than
ever. Those in rural America are particularly impacted by this
shortage, and we cannot continue to punish those who choose to
live in our rural areas in the communities, like Minnesota’s 8th
Congressional District.
That is why I was happy today to report that I, alongside Con-
gresswoman Lee, and several members of this Committee, includ-
ing Chairwoman Finkenauer and Congressman Hagedorn, to be in-
troducing the Small Business Child Care Investment Act. This leg-
islation will allow nonprofit childcare providers to apply for SBA
loans. These loans will go a long way in keeping the doors open at
childcare centers and providing for families that want to partici-
pate in the workforce.
Additionally, I am also the cosponsor of the Family Care Act.
This legislation will allow families with permanently or totally dis-
abled dependents to claim the Child Tax Credit, which is worth up
to $2,000 per qualifying dependent. Just another example where
we are trying to help families as they try to provide care for their
kids.
I want to thank all the witnesses here today for sharing your tes-
timony and expertise. It is you who help us as legislators create
good public policy.
I just want to ask a general question of each of you. What is the
most pressing challenge regarding child care for future business-
men and women?
And Doctor, you can go first.
Ms. DE RUGY. So, I mean, as I said in my testimony, I think
increasing the supply of child care is important and one of the
ways to do it, and you have to do this, you know, first I think is
to lower a lot of the requirements that are not, I mean, I am not
saying just get rid of all the requirements but there are a lot of
very strict requirements which do not add in terms of quality, in-
creased costs, reduced supply, and then ultimately increase the
price of child care. And this would be a priority.
Mr. STAUBER. State and local rules and regulations?
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Ms. DE RUGY. Yes. And that is what makes this issue so dif-
ficult. That said, as I said, I think there is hope because there is
a bipartisan consensus on this and I think President Obama’s re-
port on the issue got a lot of traction and is actually drawing a lot
of attention to something that a lot of people were already talking
about. And more half of this body in terms of information as op-
posed to regulation or money is worth doing.
Mr. STAUBER. To your point, I know that the childcare provider
for my four children is contemplating leaving the business because
of the redundant rules and regulations, and so far their family has
stayed in it but that is a real choice for her and her family to con-
tinue.
Ms. DE RUGY. And it prevents new providers from entering.
Mr. STAUBER. Stay that again?
Ms. DE RUGY. It prevents new providers——
Mr. STAUBER. Sure, absolutely.
Ms. DE RUGY.—from entering the market.
Mr. STAUBER. Absolutely.
Ms. DE RUGY. As people leave.
Mr. STAUBER. I concur with you.
Ms. Piepenburg from the great state of Minnesota, can you an-
swer that question? What is the most pressing challenge for those
businessmen and women who want to start up reference child care?
Ms. PIEPENBURG. Well, as a small business owner and a moth-
er, I mean, if businesses lose over $4 billion because of absentee-
ism, and as a small businessowner I need people to work in my
store. I would like to expand my business, but we need help in get-
ting child care and to level that playing field because I cannot com-
pete with Delta Airlines that has a childcare facility. And so, I need
actual bodies, and so I need people to be able to work in my store.
Mr. STAUBER. So is it a combination of child care and lack of
workforce?
Ms. PIEPENBURG. Absolutely.
Mr. STAUBER. Thank you.
Mr. Levi?
Mr. LEVI. I would say the number one issue facing child care is
the fact that they are simply not profitable. It is a business model
that, at least myself as a small businessowner, I would not get into
when you look at the labor cost associated with it and the potential
revenues that you can reasonably charge a mom and a dad, you
can strip regulations and you can reduce any of the expenses you
want, that labor ratio based on the amount of income you can bring
in simply is math that does not work. So, others have to come to
the table. It has to be a community solution to a community prob-
lem.
Mr. STAUBER. Thank you.
Doctor, I wanted to talk to you about the regulations. As Rank-
ing Member Hagedorn just showed, these are Minnesota’s regula-
tions. And you talk about people looking at this, a lot of paperwork,
to get into child care. That is daunting for them. These are just the
State of Minnesota’s.
Ms. DE RUGY. It is. These regulations are often put in place in
the name of the quality of service and safety. And unfortunately,
at least the academic literature that has looked at this issue, both
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for the childcare industry and for all the other industries, shows
that on average a majority of these requirements do nothing to in-
crease quality for consumers and safety. And in fact, there are
more regulations that harm that aspect.
Now, quality is hard to measure, right, but so it is a real problem
because among all these regulations, some of them may be ex-
tremely valid and important to have. But many of them are either
poorly designed or they are driven actually by special interests try-
ing keep out the competition. So there is a lot of problems and it
would be so important for state and local governments to really go
and check each one of these regulations and really assess what is
it they are doing and what they are achieving really and the im-
pact they have on costs because everyone talks about an educator
as a childcare provider. This is well and fine if there is no cost at
all, but everything is a matter of actually not driving providers out
of the system in order to increase the degrees of educators or the
number of educators in the field. It is a tradeoff. Everything is a
tradeoff.
Mr. STAUBER. Thank you very much for that answer.
Ms. Cisneros, I am out of time, and I apologize.
Chairwoman Finkenauer, thanks for the extra couple minutes.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Stauber. And
again, I appreciate your work on the issue.
I just cannot say thank you enough to all our witnesses for your
expertise on these issues. As we have heard today, access to afford-
able childcare is not just a family issue—it is an economic issue.
Ensuring that the youngest and most vulnerable among us are safe
is also something that Democrats and Republicans can both agree
on. States differ on how they regulate childcare providers, yet the
cost of childcare has increased around the country over the last
decade. Whether for a small home-based business, a licensed pro-
vider, or a large childcare center, regulations are there for a rea-
son. There are bad actors, but most of our providers get into this
business because they love our kiddos. They care about their health
and well-being. In Iowa, however, seven children have died in
childcare since the beginning of 2018. Many of those deaths are the
result of safety and licensing standards not being met. It is impor-
tant that we enforce those standards and make sure that folks are
following them. At the same time, we must continue to look at
ways to meet the growing demand for child care by supporting pro-
viders, helping communities invest in childcare solutions, and mak-
ing it easier for our businesses to be part of the solution. I strongly
believe that this is an area where we can find bipartisan agree-
ment.
We just heard from the President on Tuesday about the need to
further expand access to childcare. I hope that he and our col-
leagues in the Senate are willing to work with the House rep-
resented here in a very bipartisan Minnesota and Iowa way today
on this issue across the aisle and across chambers. It is incredibly
important to address this crisis and bring down the cost of
childcare for working families.
Thank you again so much to our witnesses who in some cases
have come a long way to share your perspective with us.
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I now ask unanimous consent that members have 5 legislative
days to submit statements and supporting material for the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
If there is no further business to come before the Committee
today, we are adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:10 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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APPENDIX
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Æ
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File and source
- File
- CHRG-116hhrg39604.pdf
- Size
- 3,597,045 bytes
- SHA-256
- 66c6d82fdc53274a3b85ae1b9d0bd506fc6c7efdde4c6a5b2eb6eaf5c947ca54
- Our copy
- CHRG-116hhrg39604.pdf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov