WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, today participated in a hearing to examine federal policies on child care. Beforehand, Grassley met with Iowa Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Care Director, Ryan Page, who served as an expert witness on the panel.
Excerpts from Grassley’s questions follow.
Public-Private Partnership Successes:
Director Page, finding solutions to improve affordability of child care is important to support working families. Can you share how public and private partnerships are driving access to child care in Iowa, and if there are any lessons learned that other states and communities could consider?
Improving Rural Child Care Options:
Director Page, we must ensure families living in rural areas also have access to child care. You shared in your testimony that Iowa is working to gather data to better understand availability of child care slots and operational capacity.
Can you discuss what factors you are looking at to gather data and information about child care across rural areas and how this will support the state’s efforts to provide child care access?
Simplifying Access to Resources:
[Dr. Katharine Stevens, Founder & President of the Center on Child and Family Policy], you discussed the impacts of bureaucratic silos across federal funding for early child education and that states play a key role in children development and their workforce.
In any potential effort to streamline federal programs for early care and education, how do you see integration of states and communities to ensure they have a seat at the table in administering these programs?
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