Keene, NH – On July 31st, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) held a roundtable discussion with local stakeholders and staff at Keene State College’s Child Development Center to discuss their work and her support for new federal legislation to increase access to child care and early childhood education.  The discussion also provided Congresswoman Kuster with a chance to hear from parents, child care providers, and advocates about how Congress can help support working families with young children, and their thoughts will be included in the Congresswoman’s forthcoming “Working Families Agenda.”

“Parents across the Granite State are hard at work providing for their families, and we must ensure they can access the resources they need for their children,” said Congresswoman Annie Kuster. “Rising child care costs and budgetary concerns for early childhood education is placing a strain on many of these families. I was proud to host today’s roundtable, to hear from working parents and other stakeholders about how Congress can help ease the burden on working families with young children, and I’m pleased to support two new bills to help lower the costs of child care for Granite State families. I thank the event participants for their feedback today, which I will share with my colleagues in Washington as I advocate in favor of legislation that supports families all across the country.”

During the roundtable, Congresswoman Kuster was joined by a number of participants from the early childhood education community and local parents to hear about the state of child care across the district.  Kuster also announced her support for two bills to help families better afford the cost of childcare: the Child Tax Credit Permanency Act of 2015, which would adjust the Internal Revenue Code to give more families access to the Child Tax Credit and provide inflation adjustments to the $1,000 credit for calendar years after 2013, and the Child Care Access and Refundability Expansion Act of 2015, which would help ensure that middle class families qualify for a larger portion of the Child Tax Credit. 

As many New Hampshire families make sacrifices and parents work multiple jobs to make ends meet, Congresswoman Kuster is committed to supporting these families and has long advocated for efforts to strengthen early childhood education.  Later this year, she will release a Working Families Agenda, a blueprint that outlines steps Congress should take to support working families across the country. Kuster was proud to host this event, which continued an important dialogue with families in New Hampshire and gave parents a chance to share ideas on policies that could benefit children and their families for years to come.

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