A question about child care at Thursday night’s first presidential debate in Atlanta, which followed a campaign by advocacy group Moms First to get something asked on the topic, got a scarce amount of air time, with President Biden addressing the issue briefly and former President Trump ignoring the question entirely.
But earlier the same day back in Washington D.C., at an all-day event hosted by the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foundation, the issue of child care took center stage—the first summit of its kind hosted by the federal agency and organization that represents business interests.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in opening remarks that “having a workforce that shows up every day—ready to work, able to work, not missing shifts, at the top of their game—is essential,” noting the event fell on the birthday of her mother, who acted as a caregiver for Raimondo’s own children, a privilege she noted many working parents don’t have.
“If you want women there—and men there—we need to think more holistically about child care. It’s good for business and our economic competitiveness, and the lack of our care infrastructure is costing us dearly.”
Raimondo, who has shaped an agenda at the Commerce Department that centers workforce issues such as broadband access, child care and women in the construction industry alongside global trade, artificial intelligence and economic competitiveness, is leading the Biden administration’s allocation of the $53 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which includes funding for new semiconductor manufacturing facilities built in the U.S. that provide a child care plan for its facility and construction workforces.
The event struck a bipartisan tone, with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and governors presenting. (Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, both Democrats, shared a stage with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, who appeared via videoconference for a panel that Raimondo moderated.) Speakers included philanthropists—Melinda Gates delivered virtual remarks—small business owners, child care providers, startups with new child care business models, leaders of public-private partnerships and corporate C-suite executives.
Another panel discussion moderated by Raimondo included Etsy CEO Josh Silverman, UPS President U.S. Nando Cesarone, Micron executive vice president Manish Bhatia, Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish and, in prepared virtual remarks, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. “How cool is this, that we have four men, CEOs and senior executives of their companies, here to talk about child care?” Raimondo began, to applause. “That in and of itself is an accomplishment, a credit to them, and gives me hope that we’re going to get this done as a country.”
In a brief interview at the event with Forbes, Raimondo said “I don’t think that would have happened five years ago,” referring to the panel of C-suite executives talking about child care, the size of the event and it being hosted at the Chamber of Commerce, which represents business interests.
Until recently, “this was thought of as a social issue and a women’s issue,” she said. But that’s changing, because “everyone is struggling to find workers. … Unless you figure out a way to get women to work, we’re just not going to get the job done.”
In the interview with Forbes, Raimondo expanded on the announcement made earlier in the day that the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department, will be expanding a major data collection tool known as the Current Population Survey to better understand the economic relevance of child care. Exactly what that means in terms of data collected isn’t yet clear, but Raimondo told Forbes “the concept, and why I wanted to do this, is you can’t make good policy unless you have the data.”
Asked if the approach taken by the CHIPS Act to tie child care plans to government funding could be expanded to other industries, Raimondo said “honestly, I think it should be everyone,” noting the range of industries speaking onstage that were struggling with child care access. “If you look through history, social norms change in moments of crisis,” she said. “We have a labor force crisis. It’s driving inflation, it’s reducing growth, it’s preventing companies from expanding at the rate they need to. I hope in this moment of this child care crisis, we change our thinking and say, this isn’t a women’s issue. It’s an everybody issue.”
An October 2023 report from the Bank of America Institute found that the average childcare payment per household rose over 30% since 2019, with middle- and upper-income families seeing the largest increases. That could impact workforce participation, or consumer spending, the report said, noting that as of September of last year, an average family spent more than $700 per month, 32% higher than the 2019 average.
The event included perspectives from child care providers like Patch Caregiving, which offers backup childcare specifically for employers with frontline workers, and a range of employers that have large hourly or manufacturing workforces that traditionally haven’t had as much access to employer-sponsored care.
Intel’s vice president of total rewards, Amber Wiseley, announced details during a panel about the chipmaker’s new child care enhancements starting this fall. They include benefits such as working with Patch to create a dedicated backup child care facility near its Oregon factory and adding a subsidy for hourly employees to offset child care costs, among other things. “This has been something our factory employees have talked about—that they need backup care and can’t necessarily find it when they’re working shifts,” Wiseley said during a panel discussion Thursday.
In her opening remarks, Raimondo pointed to data from Council for a Stronger America, a bipartisan nonprofit focused on family policy, that suggests inadequate child care costs employers $23 billion a year. “To address the child care crisis, we need sweeping public investments, we need short-term solutions—because people have got to get to work tomorrow—and we need to build for the long term.”
