A Message to Congress - You Can’t Exclude Both Paid Leave and Childcare

By Joy Burkhard, MBA and Ebony Wrenn, MA

On the heels of much needed recognition through postpartum Medicaid extension, that the first year of the postpartum period is critical to supporting maternal health, the U.S. still remains one of only a handful of developed countries that doesn’t provide federal paid family leave after the birth of a baby or provide childcare.

As the leaders of Mom Congress, we express outrage and tell Congress - you can’t continue to leave America as the only developed nation that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave *and* continue to ignore the lack of child care infrastructure in the U.S., particularly post-COVID as many childcare providers closed their programs, unable to sustain operations with diminishing enrollment.

We want Congress to hear, it’s not ok that they run their campaigns on a “family-friendly” platform and yet have done nothing to support paid parental leave or childcare - the basic needs of working families. This is particularly disheartening as inflation soars.

Congress failed U.S. mothers this year by failing to provide families with either improved access to childcare and paid leave.

Read more below about the need, and what was attempted by Congress this year.

Child Care

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), U.S. working parents with children in child care pay nearly twice as much of their income on it (23.1 percent of net income) as the OECD average (11.8 percent).

Though states can receive funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, funding for child care programs has failed to meet families’ needs—leaving them unable to access affordable, high-quality childcare.

The U.S. Senate recently advanced a budget reconciliation package excluding any funding for childcare and early education workforce. This included stripping the Democrat’s proposal for investments for childcare, universal preschool, and child tax credits from the Democrat’s Build Back Better proposal.

In early August the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act without addressing the cost of childcare. On Friday (Aug 12) the House also passed the act, and it advanced it to President Biden's desk for signature.

Maternity/Paternity Leave

According to the OECD, the United States is the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee maternity leave for working mothers (and one of only nine OECD countries with no formal leave requirements for fathers).

In late 2021, The U.S. House of Representatives proposed comprehensive 12-week paid leave through The Build Back Better Act (BBB), which died when it got to the Senate, as Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) raised concerns over the BBB Act’s hefty price tag. In another attempt to broker an agreement between chambers, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new framework to provide four weeks of paid family leave earlier this year; however, all hope for paid leave died again in the Senate as Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) critical vote blocked the paid leave provision.

Learn more about paid family leave in the U.S. through this Congressional Research Service report, updated in June 2022.

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