{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://katherineclark.house.gov/press-releases?ID=D3B905EF-6ED6-4F9F-A69B-32891810720C", "Whip Clark: \u201cWe Saved Child Care During the Pandemic. Now, We Need To Finish the Job.\u201d", "2023-12-07", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Katherine M. Clark", "C001101", "katherineclark.house.gov", "clark", "https://katherineclark.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Yesterday, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) joined Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8) and coalition partners to demand Congress pass President Biden\u2019s $16 billion supplemental request for child care after Republicans allowed this critical funding to expire in the fall. Below is a transcript of her remarks:\n\n\u201cThank you to everyone for coming to Capitol Hill \u2014 with your [union] brothers and sisters \u2014 to deliver our message loud and clear. And what is that message? 'Care Can\u2019t Wait!'\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s be clear \u2014 crystal clear \u2014 child care is economic infrastructure. And our country can not function without it \u2014 can not function without all of you. And if parents can\u2019t afford to go to work, it all grinds to a halt. That\u2019s true in every state, every Congressional district, every zip code.\n\n\u201cJust this week, I got to travel to Chris Deluzio\u2019s district in Western Pennsylvania. We toured their new airport. And you know what they put in place with the Bipartisan Infrastructure money? A child care center. A child care center. And that means that the workers working in concession at the airport, TSA workers, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, they can go to work and have a quality, safe environment for their children. They would all be forced to choose a job or their kids if we do not keep this fight up.\n\n\u201cFortunately, we not only have Leader Hakeem Jeffries \u2014 we have a President, and a Senate Majority, and a House Democratic Caucus that are united behind working families, parents, kids, and workers. What we need is for Republicans to either get on board or get out of our way.\n\n\u201cSo, the GOP has let critical child care funding expire. And now, millions of parents and caregivers are on the verge of crisis. If we don\u2019t act now 70,000 child care centers will close. Workers will be laid off. Kids will be kicked out of classrooms. And parents will have nowhere to turn.\n\n\u201cWe saved child care \u2014 all of us together \u2014 during the pandemic. Now, we need to finish the job. We're not going to walk away from this fight. We can, and must, fund child care as [the] critical infrastructure that it is \u2014 as the glue that holds our economy together. For moms. For dads. For kids. For early educators. For our entire country.\n\n\u201cSo I thank all of you in the Care Can\u2019t Wait Coalition for making your voices heard. You\u2019re on the frontlines of this fight, and House Democrats are proud to stand with you. It\u2019s my privilege to turn the floor over to one of these fighters. A child care provider. A proud member of SEIU Local 521. Maria Angelica Vargas.\u201d\n\nTo view photos of the press conference, click HERE. To view the full press conference, click HERE.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://katherineclark.house.gov/press-releases?ID=D3B905EF-6ED6-4F9F-A69B-32891810720C"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8281988557428122, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}