Posts in category: Uncategorized

U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), led Senate colleagues in introducing legislation to increase working families’ access to quality, affordable child care. The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Reauthorization Act of 2024 strengthens child care services, increases the supply of child care providers, and improves the program to support families and providers in the pursuit of quality, affordable child care.

In addition to Senator Fischer, the legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.).

“Nebraska families deserve safe, reliable, and affordable child care. Unfortunately, high-quality child care is not always easy to come by, especially for those in rural areas. Our commonsense legislation will provide America’s working families with the options they need to prioritize their children,” said Senator Fischer.

“Improving access to quality, affordable child care helps promote financial stability for families while benefiting small businesses and local economies. Child care alleviates stress on working parents because they know that their children are in a safe, structured environment where they can play and learn,” said Senator Collins. “This bill will help increase the availability of reliable care for children, providing parents with a greater ability to work or attend classes to improve their own skills and education.”

“The CCDBG has worked as a bipartisan solution for decades, providing families with flexible child care options – including in rural areas. Our legislation will expand eligibility for CCDBG while keeping costs low for hardworking families. I’m proud to back this pro-family, pro-worker proposal,” said Senator Grassley.

“I am proud to support working families across North Carolina by co-sponsoring this bill that enhances parental choice, improves access to affordable care, and strengthens our child care infrastructure,” said Senator Tillis. “The CCDBG reauthorization is commonsense legislation channeling federal child care assistance through a program with a proven track record of success and is a critical step forward in ensuring that every family has the quality child care they deserve.”

“Child care is a critical need for working families. Increasing their access to quality, affordable child care will help families and workers across the country. This common sense bill will strengthen child care services and bring more providers to rural areas in Nebraska,” said Senator Ricketts.

“Hoosier and American families rely on affordable, quality, accessible child care and preschool options. Our bill would empower parents to decide what child care and preschool providers best suit the needs of their families and strengthens child care capacity,” said Senator Young.

The bill has been endorsed by the First Five Years Fund, Save the Children, First Five Nebraska, Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, Early Care and Education Consortium, and Buffett Early Childhood Institute.

“We applaud Senator Fischer for her leadership in modernizing the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which will help our nation’s primary child care program evolve to meet the needs of families today and for years to come. Congress has repeatedly demonstrated strong, bipartisan support for CCDBG, ensuring support for hundreds of thousands of children, but we still have significant work to do to ensure the program can reach all of the families who need it. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 2024 provides a critical opportunity to make much-needed improvements to CCDBG, allowing it to help more families access and afford the child care they rely on. First Five Years Fund looks forward to working with child care champions in Congress in the weeks and months ahead to ensure more working families and their children have access to the quality child care they need to be successful,” said First Five Years Fund Executive Director Sarah Rittling.

“High-quality child care is essential to ensuring every child has a strong start in life, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program is critical to making high-quality care affordable and accessible for millions of families. That’s why Save the Children supports the efforts of Senators Fischer and Collins in the Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 2024. It would strengthen CCDBG by raising reimbursement rates to providers to better match the true cost of care, increasing the supply of child care and quality of facilities, and supporting affordable child care in rural America,” said Save the Children Managing Director Domestic Policy Roy Chrobocinski.

“Nebraska puts a high degree of value on localized decision making, especially with respect to the services and supports available to working parents with young children. Those same principles are evident in the 2024 Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization Act. This legislation enables state lawmakers and residents to tailor a more flexible and efficient child care infrastructure so parents can choose the early childhood supports that make the most sense for their families. It also introduces important efficiencies to the regulatory environment in which child care programs operate, ensuring that providers are better positioned to deliver the services our families, communities and state need to thrive,” said First Five Nebraska Deputy Director and Public Policy Manager Elizabeth Everett.

“Across the state, Nebraska’s employers are struggling to secure affordable child care for their employees and the communities they serve. Senator Fischer’s CCBDG Reauthorization Act will help reduce regulatory burdens that hinder child care providers, ensure communities have the flexibility they need to make child care funds work for them, and ensure families, employers, and providers have a seat at the table as state plans are crafted. Nebraska’s business community is grateful for Senator Fischer’s leadership on such a key issue,” said Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry Executive Vice President of Policy and Legislation Alex Reuss.

“The Lincoln Chamber thanks Senator Fischer for her leadership to modernize and reauthorize the Child Care Block Development Grant. Limited access to child care has contributed to Nebraska’s workforce challenges. The CCBDG will help Lincoln business recruit and retain workforce by providing working families access to quality child care and support early childhood professionals,” said Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Jason Ball.

“CCDBG is a vital program that helps ensure low-income families have access to high-quality child care. CCDBG reauthorization is long overdue to modernize and make much-needed updates to the program. This bill will help increase access for more low-income families by providing states with greater flexibility, help ensure more providers will be reimbursed for the true cost of providing care, and help address widespread supply shortages. We applaud Sens. Fischer and Collins for their commitment to young children,” said Early Care and Education Consortium Executive Director Radha Mohan.

Background:

The CCDBG Reauthorization Act of 2024 builds on the historically bipartisan CCDBG program which has assisted working families with their child care needs for over 30 years.

Specifically, the reauthorization:

• Ensures parental choice by supporting working parents as they choose the child care services that best suit their family’s needs.

• Strengthens child care services by moving states to a statistically valid and reliable cost estimation model for setting provider rates.

• Provides funding to states to expand the supply and capacity of child care providers, as well as to ensure that child care facilities are designed and equipped to keep children healthy and safe.

• Assists in-home and rural child care providers by providing them with technical assistance, while also directing the Department of Agriculture to remove regulatory burdens that restrict the presence of home-based child care providers.

• Broadens community input in state child care plan development.

• Reduces duplicative regulatory burdens on child care providers.

ASHLAND, Nebraska — The five members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation briefed more than 300 of the state’s business leaders Thursday and included a warning about some economic clouds brewing over agriculture.

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood of Norfolk, R-Neb., speaking at an annual event held at the Strategic Air Command & Space Museum, warned the state and local chambers of commerce from Lincoln and Omaha about the budget risks to businesses and the State of Nebraska from continued lower prices for corn and soybeans.  

He said he’s hearing from 1st Congressional District co-op leaders and people who sell irrigation equipment, tractors and other ag equipment and trucks that sales are slipping. That’s often a sign of a down cycle, he said.

‘Sobering report’

Flood pointed to a “sobering report” this month from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City that indicated economists and bankers in Nebraska and Iowa are predicting lower farm income this year and higher lines of credit.

He said the Nebraska Legislature is likely to face its first experience since he was serving as a state senator and speaker in dealing with declining state tax receipts because of tough times in ag country.

Flood and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts of Omaha said all of Nebraska feels it when ag has a tough year, because so much of the state’s economy is boosted by the production and sales of row crops, ethanol, cows, hogs and chickens.

“We’re going into a really dark period here, where banks and those that do the lending are going to be having very tough conversations with producers for the first time in a while,” Flood said. “We’ve had some really good years.”

Boom and bust in agriculture

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of Lincoln, whose family owns and operates a ranch near Valentine, said most of the experienced farmers and ranchers she speaks with around the state understand and prepare for the boom and bust runs of agriculture.

She said she worries most for young producers, who haven’t seen three-dollar corn before. For them, this stretch is going to be difficult. But farmers and ranchers are in the business for the long haul, she said.

“People are just going to weather the storm, as we always do in agriculture,” she said. “You’re not going to be buying that new combine, you’re not going to be buying that new pickup, and that then has ramifications in your community.”

Economic issues widespread

Rep. Adrian Smith of Gering, who represents the largely rural, sprawling 3rd Congressional District, said his constituents share the concerns  about higher ag costs and lower prices. 

Smith, who serves on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said people need the certainty of knowing the Trump-era tax cuts will survive so higher taxes don’t push down investment and slow wage growth.

“There are concerns economically across the board,” Smith said.

Ricketts and 2nd District U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Papillion said they want Congress to start grappling with the national debt. They said simply paying the interest on the nation’s debts is at risk of crowding out other critical budgetary needs, including defense spending.

“Our interest is the second-biggest line item we have,” Ricketts said. “It’s the fastest growing. We’ve got to get our spending under control. Here in Nebraska, we demonstrated how to do it. We need to do it.”

Farmers need crop insurance

Bacon, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, said he is working with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to make sure the House version of the five-year farm bill protects crop insurance, a key farm support.

“That is the number one thing we have to do for our farmers,” Bacon said.

He and Smith discussed the need to expand opportunities to sell more Nebraska products abroad, be they agricultural or manufacturing. Bacon called Nebraska “an export state” that needs more access to international markets.

Smith said former President Donald Trump prioritized finding partners and places for many of the region’s products. He criticized the Biden administration for coasting on trade, saying competitive times require more from him.

Smith called for quicker and more decisive action seeking enforcement and relief on bioengineered corn sales to Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. Mexico’s leadership has dragged its feet on corn imports, he said.

“The world is watching, and the world expects more of a trade agenda from the United States of America than … what they’ve seen over the last three and a half years now,” Smith said.

Appreciating a different approach 

The three House members and two senators talked about their relationships with each other and said their colleagues in Congress marvel that members of Nebraska’ delegation all get along. They said each specializes in different areas of policy interest.

Nebraska State Chamber President Bryan Slone told the group’s midmorning crowd that Nebraska is lucky to have members of Congress who take time to update them in person on the way things are going in Washington, D.C.

He also urged attendees to look beyond the acrimony of an election year and remember to value the freedoms they enjoy to be able to criticize their elected leaders and candidates and write, call, text or stop by to share their thoughts.

“We complain every day about American politics,” Slone said. “The truth is there’s nothing cooler in the world … that we have a system where we can disagree, we can argue, we can puff, we can do all of those things.”

On August 1, Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) introduced the Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 2024. The act builds on the current Child Care and Development Block Grant legislation last reauthorized in 2014. Additional co-sponsors include Todd Young (R-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE). Senate Republicans introduced a similar piece of legislation in the last congress with 14 co-sponsors, including Sen. Fischer.

What could it mean for afterschool?

Afterschool programs play a significant role in federal child care funding and in this proposed legislation. An explanatory document of the bill’s major provisions highlights the importance of flexible options in a mixed delivery system to support parent choice, including services for “before-school, after-school and summer care for school-age children.” Currently, 44% of children and youth served by CCDBG funds are school-aged. The legislation text also emphasizes the need for parents to have options to “cover the full workday and full work year,” in a nod to meeting the true needs of so many working and training parents as their children age into the K-12 system. The text would also offer states an opportunity to expand eligibility through a waiver that would allow them to exceed the current federal maximum of supporting families at 85% of state median income if demand for low-income families has been met through appropriate payments.

The legislation also builds on current CCDBG language by placing a greater focus on the child care workforce, including as a key objective of “supporting the education and professional development of child care staff” and the recruitment and retention of that workforce.

In addition to parental and workforce supports, the legislation offers new language to support the business of child care itself. This would include technical assistance in areas such as management coaching and shared service initiatives. It would potentially ease additional hurdles for providers by ensuring states review their health and safety and licensing for clarity and ease of compliance, while still maintaining safe and healthy environments. And it would support the reality of costs in the child care market across ages, settings, and levels of quality by ensuring all states establish cost estimation models within a five-year period reflective of (among other areas) the salaries and benefits needed to recruit and retain qualified staff. States would choose the cost model methodology they prefer, but once adopted, they would be required to pay programs in accordance with the model and provide cost of living increases at a minimum of every two years.

Part II of the bill would add a new section on “Child Care Supply and Facilities Grants” to establish grants to states to subgrant funds to programs eligible to participate in CCDBG. Uses include startup and expansion costs, meeting health, safety, and licensing requirements, participating in state quality systems, or developing networks of family care providers. Additional grants would be available for facility costs such as construction, renovation, and remodeling. States would be permitted to retain up to 10% of the program allocation for administration and technical assistance, including third-party networks and intermediaries.

While the bill does not designate a specific amount of funding for these advances, the legislation brings attention to important needs in the child care, afterschool, and summer sectors. Additionally, by keeping the framework of the current CCDBG system, the bill maintains alignment and continuity across the age continuum as babies age into pre-K and school-age care. While the bill is currently supported only by Republican Senators, there are bipartisan components to the bill, including reducing unnecessary barriers to program participation in subsidy; supporting the child care workforce; increasing supply through program support in navigating the licensing process and facility costs; and ensuring programs can afford to continue operating through payments reflective of their true costs for high-quality staff and high-quality care.  

For afterschool programs, progress in these areas is critical. Currently, for every 1 child in an afterschool program, 4 more are waiting to get in. And providers are reporting that increased costs, including those to attract and retain staff, are responsible for growing waitlists. Meanwhile, a number of states are moving to school-age-specific licensing regulations that make the process less onerous for school-age providers to accept subsidies, and some excellent school-age quality systems are providing opportunities to supply more great programming options for families built on the tenets of positive youth development.

The afterschool community can use this momentum to continue communicating to Congressional Representatives and local candidates that we can and must ensure child care supports for access, licensing, quality systems, and the workforce are reflective of the diverse and impactful community of school-age, afterschool, and summer providers.

U.S. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) joined a bipartisan effort urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to modernize and improve the accuracy of its foreign land ownership disclosure process.

In the letter, the senators note alleged inaccuracies in information publicly posted by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the problems that arise when this information is inaccurate.

“The current practice of manual data entry, including the re-typing of paper-filed reports into FSA systems, can lead to the publication of problematic and inaccurate information,” wrote the senators. “We’re told there have been instances where energy developers have been incorrectly identified as having ownership interests from sanctioned nations, when in reality the investment originates from U.S. allies. If true, such errors create confusion and undermine the credibility of the data published by the FSA.”

In addition to Ricketts and Fischer, other signatories include Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Braun (R-IN), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

Read the full letter here or below:

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

August 12, 2024

We write regarding alleged inaccuracies in information publicly posted by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) on its website, specifically related to disclosures made under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) Reports (FSA–153s).

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 mandated the establishment of a streamlined process for electronic submission and retention of AFIDA disclosures, including an internet database. At the beginning of the year, the Government Accountability Office also recommended the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) analyze its ability to create an AFIDA online submission system and public database within its expected budget. However, we are concerned about the accuracy of information contained in these disclosures, which are still completed by hand on physical paper.

The current practice of manual data entry, including the re-typing of paper-filed reports into FSA systems, can lead to the publication of problematic and inaccurate information. We’re told there have been instances where energy developers have been incorrectly identified as having ownership interests from sanctioned nations, when in reality the investment originates from U.S. allies. If true, such errors not only create confusion but also undermine the credibility of the data published by the FSA.

With these specific concerns in mind, we have the following questions:

• ·  What measures is USDA taking to identify and correct inaccuracies in the publicly accessible database of AFIDA reports under current (i.e., handwritten submissions) submission requirements?
• ·  How frequently is the FSA reviewing the information posted on its website for accuracy?
• ·  What process does the FSA have in place for stakeholders to report inaccuracies in the

published information, and how are these reports addressed?

• ·  Are there plans to improve the accuracy of data entry to prevent future inaccuracies?
• ·  What further direction from Congress—as specifically as possible—would the FSA need

to transition to an online submission system?

• ·  Are there opportunities for the online system to save the FSA staffing resources in the

long-run?

We believe it is essential for the USDA to ensure that the information published on its website is accurate and reliable. Inaccurate information can have significant implications for various stakeholders and erodes public trust in the integrity of the reporting process. We hope to work with you to modernize FSA operations.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your response.

WASHINGTON ­– U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) issued the following statement on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation following the assassination attempt on President Trump:

“Secret Service Director Cheatle has rightly resigned following her organization’s utter failure to protect President Trump. However, the American people still deserve to know why that failure was so complete, as well as what changes will be made to stop future assassination attempts. Administration and agency officials must cooperate fully, honestly, and transparently with Congressional investigations,” said Senator Fischer.