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The playground of the new daycare for staff and legislators of the House of Representatives evokes the skyline and the many monuments of the state of Washington.
Capitol Office Architect
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Architect of the Capitol Office
The playground of the new daycare for staff and legislators of the House of Representatives evokes the skyline and the many monuments of the state of Washington.
Architect of the Capitol Office
At the sight of the dome of the United States Capitol, a new dome is about to open. It's on the playground of a new daycare reserved exclusively for employees of the US House and the playground is designed in part to look like a national mall at the height of a child .
"This is the only Washington DC monument you can climb," joked majority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Who helped inspire the field's design.
McCarthy will become the minority leader at the next Congress, but as leader he used the office to secure space in a government building adjacent to the Capitol – and more than $ 12 million in funding public – for a state-of-the-art 26,000 square foot child care facility
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 20, 2018.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP
On December 20, 2018, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Leader of the Parliamentary Majority on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
The first phase, which begins this week, will support up to 120 infants and young children. The second phase will add 122 preschoolers in about a year. This expansion will reduce the waiting list of child care services in the House from three years to one, which will make it much easier for new parents to plan child care.
This use of taxpayer funds could open the door for congressional criticism, but McCarthy says the goal is the following. It's about keeping highly qualified staff on the hill. The daycare is reserved for domestic workers. (The Senate has its own daycare, whose waiting list is always long.)
"If anyone works for you and wants to continue serving the government, but says:" I do not I do not have a guard service so that I can "Do not stay here, the waiting list is too long, the quality is not at the rendezvous", so you disadvantage who can serve and working in government at the same time, "he told NPR.
The waiting list for child care in the House was became so long that staff members wanted to sign up even before they were pregnant. "I have friends who, the minute they became engaged, signed up on the list", said Melissa Murphy, chief of staff for Representative David Rouzer, RN.C., who currently has two children in daycare.
According to Murphy, it is common for Members of Congress make the reluctant decision to leave the Hill for more lucrative jobs in the private sector, when they decide to start a family. "It's really upsetting to see this because they're making the decision to leave the hill and leave the public service because the cost of private daycare is hard to keep up with some of the congressional salaries," he said. she said.
$ 1100 and $ 1700 a month – a fraction of the cost of comparable private daycares in the Washington, DC area, which is one of the most expensive places in the country to raise children.
Legislators do not receive any special treatment. "I have never been removed from the list," said the representative. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash. "I had to keep looking like everyone else, you get on a list, you hope it works, and if it does not work get something going."
NPR has only identified two members of Congress – the two male lawmakers – whose children are currently enrolled in the daycare.
Herrera Beutler is one of the ten legislators to give birth in Congress. She is also trying to recruit more young women to run for office. She added that child care concerns were one of the main deterrents for women. She hopes the new daycare will also help change this culture.
"The message is this: you can make this work work for the good of the country and your family, and I feel like a child care service. opportunity to give this option to have more women – so we will be more representative of the American people, "she said.
The new daycare could also open the Congress to public criticism of lawmakers. are willing to provide quality, affordable and subsidized child care, but have done little to reduce the huge costs of American family child care costs.
outgoing representative. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, has been instrumental in securing taxpayer dollars for daycare expansion. Yoder said he sees it as a convention setting a standard for the private sector.
"The Congress is trying to lead and show clearly that as the governing body, we think it is important for employers to put child care first." said.
And as of this week in the House of Representatives, this is the case.
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