Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Action Steps on Child Care and Welfare-TANF

Apr 02, 2002

Congress has recessed for two weeks and your Senators and
Representatives will be home to meet with constituents. When they come
back to Washington on April 9th, they will be making crucial decisions
affecting low-income children and families. You can influence those
decisions by taking time during this break to contact your Senators and
Representatives and urge their support for two important priorities
within the Act to Leave No Child Behind (H.R. 1990/S. 940).

CHILD CARE: Congress must renew the Child Care and Development Block
Grant (CCDBG) this year and CDF is urging members to increase child
care
funding by $20 billion over the next five years in order to improve the
quality of child care and serve 2 million more children. More
information about child care is available on the CDF Action Council
website at http://cdfactioncouncil.org/Indexcc.htm.

A critical first step has been taken in the Senate toward reaching our
$20 billion goal. Senators Bingaman (D-NM) and Kerry (D-MA) have
introduced S. 2070 to make significant new investments in child care to
allow states to serve more children and improve quality. In the House,
Representative George Miller (D-CA) has introduced a comprehensive and
fully funded child care bill, H.R. 3524.

CHILD CARE ACTION NEEDED: Meet with your Senators and Representatives
during recess and urge them to support a $20 billion increase in child
care over the next five years. As an important first step in the
Senate,
urge your Senators to co-sponsor the Bingaman-Kerry Children First Act
of 2002, S. 2070; and urge your Representatives to co-sponsor the
Miller
bill, H.R. 3524. You can call and be connected to your Senators and
Representative through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
You can send them a prewritten, editable message from the CDF Action
Council's Take Action Center at:
http://cdfactioncouncil.org/Indexcc.htm.

WELFARE-TANF: Congress also must renew the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) program this year. CDF is urging members to
improve TANF to better help parents get - and keep - permanent jobs
that
will lift them from poverty. Representative Cardin (D-MD) has
introduced H.R. 3625 to improve TANF and provide parents essential work
supports, including significant new investments in child care.

The Bush Administration's proposal to renew TANF would impose harsh new
work requirements without the additional supports families need to
successfully move from welfare to work. CDF urges Congress to reject
the
President's TANF proposal and other TANF plans being proposed by
Senators Carper (D-DE) and Bayh (D-IN) that would make it harder for
families to get the supports they need to move from welfare to work.
For more information on the President's plan and CDF's response, visit
the CDF Action Council website at:
http://cdfactioncouncil.org/Family%20Income%20Index.htm.

WELFARE-TANF ACTION NEEDED: Contact your members and urge them to
support welfare-TANF legislation that will help families escape
poverty.
Specifically, urge your Representative to support H.R. 3625 by
Representative Cardin; and urge your Senators to oppose the President's
plan and the Carper-Bayh proposal. You can call and be connected to
your
Senators and Representative through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at
(202) 224-3121. You can send them a prewritten, editable message from
the CDF Action Council's Take Action Center at:
http://capwiz.com/cdf/issues/alert/?alertid=121286&type=CO.