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Bipartisan support on childcare likely in a new farm bill

A new farm bill could address rural childcare issues for the first time. 

Senate Ag Committee member Sherrod Brown tells Brownfield there’s a strong bipartisan coalition to support childcare in every community.

“It’s hard enough in metro areas to find affordable childcare, and it’s even harder in rural areas, and so we should not do only urban or only rural,” he says.

Chief economist John Newton with Senate Ag Committee Republicans says it’s one of the top concerns of young farmers.

“Your ability to get a job off the farm depends on childcare, so we believe that you can make those investments as part of USDA rural development,” he tells Brownfield.

Hancock County Farm Bureau President Heather Bryan is a mother of four.

“Childcare is incredibly expensive,” she says. “It’s also the most important concern you have as a parent, and so if we are able to get aid in childcare within rural counties, that will allow people to stay at home with the people they love the most, as well as to do that really great work of farming.”

Brownfield spoke with leaders during the recent Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s County President’s Trip in Washington D.C.