Child Care Questionnaire: Rep. Don Bacon and Tony Vargas
We spoke with both candidates in the race to represent Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional district for their thoughts on child care issues facing the district.
Here’s what they said:
| Question | Rep. Don Bacon | Tony Vargas |
|---|---|---|
| Please share your priorities and vision for improving child care and early learning? | With the cost of living up more than 20% since January 2021, I believe we must expand child care tax credits to ease the burden of child care costs for working families. Child care costs are up more than 30% since 2019. In my district, polling shows that 65% of voters had to miss work due to complications with child care. That should not be the reality. We need to encourage expansion and growth of our existing child care facilities to provide more options for families at lower costs. That is why I would support the Child Care and Development Block Grant which would use federal funds to expand state child care programs. In Congress, I am a leading advocate for Foster Care, where I am leading efforts to keep siblings together and secure more funding and better services for our nation’s foster youth. | As the parent of two young kids, child care costs are personal to me. My wife and I pay nearly $3,000 a month in child care and we’re lucky to be able to afford it. So many don’t have that luxury. Good child care makes a huge difference in a kid’s future. It’s a jump start on the child’s education and socialization and quality child care must be affordable and accessible. The government must do everything it can to bring the cost down, ensure the workers are being paid fair wages to attract the important talent we need to do these jobs, and expand childcare in both urban and rural areas. By expanding the child tax credit, we can put money back in the pockets of parents to allow them to afford childcare, taking some of the financial burden off their backs. We can also put more funding into Head Start and Child Care block grants to states. But this starts from putting leaders who have skin in the game in Congress. Young parents know the struggle first hand. And that’s how we prioritize issues like this to solve. |
| Do you support increased federal funding for child care and early learning programs such as Head Start/Early Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grant, and the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five? | Yes | Yes |
| Do you support the expansion of child care tax credits, like the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), to make child care more affordable and accessible for working families? | Yes | Yes |
| Do you commit to working in Congress to try and ensure quality child care and early learning options are available to working families? | Yes | Yes |
| Will you commit to attending a child care and early learning focused event such as a site visit, round table discussion with parents and providers, forum, briefing etc. during the campaign and after you are elected? | Yes | Yes |