District Offices Provide Gateway to State
Services
A column by State Senator Pat Browne
16th Senatorial District
Each year, the General Assembly spends most of
June and – more recently – the first weeks of July
hammering out the state budget.
While consideration of our $24 billion state
budget is a massive undertaking, it pales in
comparison with the wrangling that takes place over
the trillions of dollars that are allocated by the
federal government. During its extensive budget
process, Congress must decide the best ways to
channel that money to meet the needs of the federal
government, while providing funding to the fifty
states as well as numerous other domestic and
international groups, organizations and governments.
That is why my colleague Jane Orie of Allegheny
County and I have introduced legislation strongly
urging Congress to continue its support and increase
its funding for child care services. The federal
government currently provides $4.8 billion dollars
annually through a block grant program to the states
for essential child care services. Our bills also
call on Congress to provide $6 billion in new
mandatory child care funds.
This additional funding was approved by the U.S.
Senate's Finance Committee on March 9 but is still
awaiting a final vote by the full Senate. If this
important measure comes to the floor, we hope that
it will see the same success that it did last year
when it was approved by a solid 78-20 majority.
Overall, Pennsylvania currently spends about $512
million for child care programs. The proposed $6
billion increase in funding would mean an additional
$200 million to Pennsylvania over the five-year life
of the federal legislation. Needless to say, this
additional money would be a major boost in our
effort to help families transition from the welfare
roll to the payroll.
Pennsylvania is already struggling to meet the
child care needs of working families. Only one in
four eligible families is receiving child care
assistance in the state and a majority of
Pennsylvania's counties have or have had a waiting
list for child care services during the past two
years. In fact, 2,600 children were on the waiting
list for child care services in March.
Finding affordable child care is undoubtedly one
of the largest hurdles that families must overcome
in their efforts to move beyond welfare, and
unfortunately, it is all too often a stumbling block
that prevents adults from becoming productive
members of our society.
What's worse, if parents can't work and are
unable to succeed in life, then that raises the bar
against their children and they can easily fall
behind as well and become enmeshed in a vicious
cycle of dependency and deprivation.
Senators Santorum and Specter have already voted
in favor of providing the additional money needed to
boost child care efforts in the states and help us
work with families and employers to break that
vicious cycle.
Now, we are calling for action, for Congress to
act in a unified, bi-partisan manner, to give the
states the additional resources that will help
families today and give hope to all Pennsylvania
children for a brighter future.
