U.S. Rep. Hayes insists $$ are needed for child care centers

By Scott Benjamin

When George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis were vying for the White House, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist William Safire declared that child care was the "sleeper issue" of the "1988 campaign."

"Well over half of U.S. women with preschool or school-age children are at work, and many of the others would work if they could - which means that a wide-ranging approach to child care has become a top national priority," Safire added.

A generation later, as a result of the pandemic, government officials are now trying to re-establish a child care system that will be safe and affordable in an era of social distancing and state guidelines that will likely increase tuition.

U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-5) of Wolcott has been a leader on the issue over the last two months. On May 28 she and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) of New Haven, a key Appropriations subcommittee chairman; U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the chairman of the Education & Labor Committee; and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) proposed the $50 billion Child Care Is Essential Act which would create a stabilization fund within the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).

The current proposal is scaled down from a $100 billion package that Hayes and other congressional Democrats had unveiled on May 12.

Hayes stated in a news release that, " To date, the Congress has provided much needed funding to deal with the crisis. The CARES Act infuses $3.5 billion to the childcare sector through CCDBG and Head Start Programs." The $2.2 trillion CARES Act was approved on March 27.

The congresswoman stated in a May 12 news release that, "Even before this pandemic, over 44 percent of people in Connecticut lived in a child-care desert."

In a May 28 news release she stated that the Child Care Stabilization Fund would provide grant money to providers to stabilize the childcare sector and support them to safely reopen by providing money for, among other things, ensuring grants to adequately support operating expenses and require provides to continue to pay staff.

“Child care providers in Connecticut and around the country are desperate after the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic has left the industry on the brink of total collapse. These are the individuals and businesses that allow parents to return to the workforce with peace of mind, and help our children learn, grow and thrive.” stated Hayes

Over the recent weeks, Patch.com twice sought via e-mail messages to Hayes's Washington congressional office to get a phone interview with the congresswoman for additional comment on the proposed child care funding and other issues related to the pandemic . Apparently there was no response to either e-mail message.

In a May phone interview, Brookfield Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn told Patch.com that "the state and federal governments are grappling with this. You can't go back to the way things were. There are questions about safety with 15 to 20 children in a small area. It is not reasonable to have three year-olds maintain social distancing."

"As businesses reopen, parents are going to need a place for their children to be during the hours that they are working," he added.

In a May 12 news release on the initial proposal with the higher price tag, Hayes and five Democratic House colleagues stated that $50 billion is required in the form of short-term stabilization. and $50 billion in long-term recovery funding to support students, families and providers.

Retired U.S. Assistant Attorney David X. Sullivan of New Fairfield, the Republican candidate in the Fifth District, said in a June 5 phone interview that if there is further fiscal stimulus it should focus on health care and on back to work objectives.

Regarding health care, Sullivan referred to supplies, equipment and medication and facilities to fight the virus and provide care for the victims.

On back to work, Sullivan called for compensation or aid for workers and businesses directly impacted by the loss of wages and revenues due to business closures and the emergency social distancing protocols intended to protect Americans.

In a prepared statement accompanying the phone interview, Sullivan wrote, "On the surface it appears that her concept of aid for child care facilities falls under the category of getting people back to work, although she offers no evidence of how she arrived at the $50 billion price tag - or how this spending might syphon money away from other essential back to work activities."

Hayes stated in a news release, “Providers are trying to safely reopen, while balancing the reality of accumulating rent payments, furloughed workers and mounting debt. The loss of thousands of providers and child care slots will have lasting consequences for families and the economy in my state. The urgency of this situation demands immediate, and robust federal investment.”

Under a headline: "A dilemma for day care," Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen wrote on June 9 that the state of Massachusetts had specifications of 35 square feet per child but now it is calling for "a minimum of 42 square feet, while 144 [square feet per child] would be ideal to maintain social distancing."

The Boston Globe reported on June 6 that Tracy Hatfield, the Curious Child Care Inc. in Hudson, Mass .said that she will have to raise tuition.

Hatfield told The Boston Globe, "I'm looking at a 40 percent decrease in income without changing my rates."

Hayes said during a recent virtual news conference that $7 billion for child care centers was included in the proposed $3 trillion Heroes Act. She said that there "is more work to do" on day care.

The Heroes Act was narrowly approved in the U.S. House on May 15 on a largely party-line vote, but was not considered in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

The 1,815-page proposal would, among other things would provide more aid for states, another round of direct payments for Americans, mortgage relief, rental assistance and an increase in the value of the earned income tax credit.

Hayes has said among the many constituents that she has spoken with, "Not one has said, 'You need to slow this down.' "

In a prepared statement to Patch.com, Sullivan wrote, Hayes "[wasted] precious time . . . blindly supporting [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi's preposterous $3 trillion spending bill," which was not developed with Republicans in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate.

Sullivan has made reference to Pelosi in several public comments since entering the race in July of last year. This apparently is similar to the strategy employed by former Waterbury Mayor and state Sen. Sam Caligiuri when he was the Republican nominee in the Fifth District in 2010 and Pelosi was in her first tenure as speaker. Then-U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who is now Connecticut's junior U.S. senator, scored a 54 percent to 46 percent victory over Caligiuri in the 2010 election.

Connecticut Democrats apparently consider Pelosi to be an asset. When she was the second ranking Democrat in the U.S. House, she campaigned with former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury at a news conference outside the Danbury Public Library in 2002, and with Murphy in Waterbury, when he initially ran for the seat in 2006 and Pelosi was the Minority Leader of the House. She made appearances last year at Democratic events in New Haven and Hartford.

On another topic, Sullivan indicated in a June 5 phone interview that Hayes has not been available enough to answer questions from the news media on various issues and instead has too often had campaign or congressional staff members distribute news releases or prepared statements.

Sullivan posted a news release on June 10 with the headline, "Why Won't Jahana Hayes Debate the Issues?"

However, on May 13 Hayes, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Greenwich) and four other New England House Democratic members participated in a virtual news conference just two days before the Heroes Act was considered. She delivered opening comments which included a reference to her commitment to adequately providing support to day care centers through the $100 billion that she was seeking at that time. She also provided answers to two of the three questions that were posed by reporters to the six congressmen during the session.

During the pandemic, the unemployment rate, which was 3.5 percent in February - the lowest rate since the late 1960s - soared to 14.7 percent in April and then declined to 13.3 percent in May.

"We needed a positive sign, and we got it," Sullivan said. "It is not rising and it is not stagnant."

The Wall Street Journal reported on June 11 that of the 62 economists it surveyed, 68.4 percent expect an economic recovery during the third quarter of 2020. However, the Congressional Budget Office recently suggested in may take a decade to fully recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Janet Yellen recently told The Washington Post that, “The jobless rate, even if it declines, I believe is going to stay extremely high through the end of the year. It’s absolutely essential to have another package that will extend unemployment benefits beyond the summer. That’s going to be tremendously needed.”

The federal government has spent nearly $3 trillion in stimulus since late March - nearly four times the amount of the February 2009 stimulus package that was signed by former Democratic President Barack Obama. Will it be essential to provide even more aid?

"It may be necessary," Sullivan said, when asked about whether additional stimulus is essential.

He indicated that he is comfortable with the position of Larry Kudlow of Redding, the director of the National Economic Council, to evaluate the impact of the nearly $3 trillion in stimulus that approved this spring before embarking on additional spending.

Republican President Donald Trump has indicated he would consider a payroll tax cut.

In a May 14 interview after capturing the nomination at the Republican Fifth District convention Sullivan said, "I am inclined to go that route," when asked about tax cuts to further stimulate an econ0mic rebound. He said that he doesn't believe that Americans can afford more to pay higher taxes.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has called for the federal government to approve business liability shields as the economy reopens.

The New York Times reported that McConnell has said, "If people don't come and businesses are afraid to open because of the lawyers lurking outside their doors, we won't have the reopening that we want."

Sullivan said he doesn't have a position on the business liability shields. He said that there may be a "compelling argument" for them. However, for now, "It is putting the cart before the horse."