“It’s not the 1950s in America.”
That’s the message U.S. Sen. Patty Murray wants members of Congress and anyone else who’ll listen to hear about the Trump administration’s plan to take federal dollars intended to help cover child care costs for working parents and give them to families where parents are married, and one stays home to parent.
Murray, a Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, lambasted the proposed policy this week, calling it an attack on single parents.
“Our government shouldn’t punish people for being single parents or choosing not to marry,” Murray said. “There are hundreds of thousands of families stuck on waiting lists who are eligible for very limited federal child care subsidies—you don’t get to skip the line because you have a marriage certificate.
“I will not allow this President to tell single moms that their kids matter less,” Murray said. “This is an illegal and backward move to deny single parents and unmarried couples federal funding they should be entitled to.”
Under the proposed rule, pushed by Vice President JD Vance, married parents who want to stay home with kids rather than work or go to school themselves would be eligible for federal child care subsidies. The money would come from the Child Care and Development Fund, created to help working parents and those attending school afford child care. The majority of parents who benefit from the fund currently are single working mothers, and critics like Murray say the proposal would make more people eligible for the limited funds and that single working mothers would pay the heaviest price.
“There are hundreds of thousands of working families who qualify for federal child care assistance on waiting lists,” Murray said. “Nobody cares what JD Vance thinks constitutes a ‘real’ family—single parents and parents who aren’t married pay taxes, too. Raiding an underfunded program solely to score culture war points is not pro-family—it’s a wasteful grift that I will fight every step of the way.”
