; Whereas when families are guaranteed high-quality, flexible, available, and affordable child care, business productivity improves, parents have a greater likelihood of finding and keeping employment, and children do better in school and in life; Whereas fixing the child care system is also an issue of racial justice such that ensuring that families of color have access to high-quality, affordable child care is an important part of dismantling the systemic underinvestment in Black, Indigenous, and other families and workers of color; Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic exacerbated existing problems in child care and created new problems, including providing safe emergency care while providers are struggling with significant reductions in revenue; Whereas according to a study conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children in March 2020, 47 percent of child care providers would not survive a closure of more than two weeks without significant support; and Whereas an analysis by the Center for American Progress estimated that, without adequate public support, 4.5 million child care slots could be lost permanently: Now, therefore, be it