Washington, DC - After midnight, following many hours of debate throughout the night, Congresswoman Stefanik and House Republicans on the Committee of Education and Labor offered common-sense, bipartisan amendments to President Biden's partisan COVID-19 relief plan. These proposals focused on helping schools across the country safely reopen, small businesses stay afloat, and workers reenter the workforce. In their unsurprising partisan rebuke, Democrats on the Committee voted against every, single, bipartisan proposal.
Congresswoman Stefanik's proposals would have:
- Expanded Rural Child Care Options – This amendment would have reserved 5% of funds in the proposed Child Care Stabilization Fund to address childcare needs in rural communities, to be used for recruiting new child care providers to rural communities and providing them funds to cover start-up expenses, supporting family child care providers to increase their capacity, supporting child care providers to offer care during non-traditional hours, and partnering with businesses to develop on-site child care options for their employees.
- Redirected Funds to Community Colleges – This amendment would have reinstated a provision from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (December relief package) to reallocate money from wealthy institutions to community colleges in need, to be used as grants for students, sanitation, PPE, or other health and safety expenses they can hardly afford.
- Invested in Workforce Development – This amendment would have added $4.58 billion dollars for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's dislocated worker grants, to provide job training to unemployed workers. Democrats instead support a bill that includes zero dollars for workforce development.
- Prohibited Funds to Institutions Partnering with CCP – This amendment would have prohibited academic institutions from funding if they have a partnership with any entity owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the government of the People’s Republic of China or organized under the laws of the Chinese Communist Party.
Congresswoman Stefanik issued the following statement on the Democrats’ hypocritical decision to block these bipartisan proposals: "My Democratic colleagues say they want to get America's children back to school, expand child care for working families, provide support for businesses and workers, and stand up to Communist China, but their voting record last night proves just the opposite. They voted against every commonsense proposal offered by myself and my colleagues, all of which would have addressed the needs of millions of Americans across the country. Their hasty partisanship is deeply disappointing -- the American people deserve leaders who are willing to compromise and accept various solutions from the other side of the aisle."
