Blog | October 17, 2017

Business Leaders Stress Importance of Child Care and the PACE Act

ReadyNation member Michael Chesser joined Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) for a briefing on Capitol Hill

On Thursday, October 12, ReadyNation hosted a Congressional briefing on how high-quality child care can help build a productive workforce and a robust future economy by supporting the successful social, emotional, and cognitive development of children. The briefing, “Child Care and the PACE Act: Investing in working families to build a productive American workforce,” was cosponsored by Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-KS-3) and Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy (D-FL-7). Both lawmakers spoke at the outset of the event about how their bill, the bipartisan Promoting Affordable Child Care for Everyone (PACE) Act (H.R. 3632), can help more working families address the rising cost of child care.

Panelists included ReadyNation member Michael Chesser, Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of Great Plains Energy; ReadyNation Brain Science Speaker Dr. Laura Jana, a renowned pediatrician, health communicator, and author; Melanie Bronfin, Executive Director of the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children; and Aparna Mathur, Ph.D., Resident Economic Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

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Each panelist provided a unique perspective on the importance of child care to our current and future workforce as well as challenges faced by working families in finding accessible, affordable, and high-quality care. The briefing also served as the official release of the latest ReadyNation report, “High-quality Child Care: A two-generation solution for a productive American workforce,” which describes the research demonstrating how high-quality child care fosters early brain development in children and helps develop a stronger, more stable workforce in the future, while supporting productivity by working parents today.

As Congress negotiates the details of a tax reform package, lawmakers have the opportunity to modernize the existing Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) through the PACE Act. That modernization would increase the amount of pre-tax income that can be set aside in flexible savings accounts, increase the credit rate for low- and middle-income families, and make the credit fully refundable and accessible for more working families paying for child care.

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