Through the American Rescue Plan Act, hard-hit child care providers received financial assistance to cover costs for providing care.

But that federal funding is set to expire at the end of September 2023, which could mean 70,000 child care programs will need to shut down—and over 3 million children could lose child care.

Congress can pass emergency spending measures, but we also need long-term solutions, such as investing in child care and early childhood learning programs, ensuring decent living wages for workers, and getting families the resources they need to be able to afford child care.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib co-sponsored two bills this year that would invest in child care and early learning programs: the Child Care for Working Families Act and the Child Care for Every Community Act.

Rashida also introduced the End Child Poverty Act to provide families with a universal benefit of nearly $400 per month, from children’s birth until their 19th birthday. This would provide more per month (and for more years) than the American Rescue Plan’s temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit, which helped families cover rising child care costs and cut child poverty by 40% before it expired at the end of 2021.

We have policy solutions, but we need to pass them through Congress and implement them.

Please add your name now to call on Congress to urgently invest in child care and early childhood education programs, and to pass legislation to support working class families.