Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) received a Lifetime Achievement Award on Wednesday from the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) for his work in support of quality, affordable child care. “As much progress as we have made in the last several decades, I know that the fight to secure quality, affordable child care is not over. Even as the cost of child care goes up, the recession is putting a bigger pinch on family budgets. And it is making it even more important for parents to be able to work longer hours, making child care all the more important,” said Dodd as he accepted the award. “I’ll continue to fight to make sure that no parent has to choose between a job and a child.”
In 2001, NACCRRA awarded Dodd with a Lifetime Leadership Award for Quality Child Care for his legislative accomplishments benefitting families in Connecticut and throughout the nation by improving access to safe, quality child care.
Throughout his career in the Senate, Dodd—Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s Subcommittee on Children and Families—has worked to protect the rights and health of children. In 1983, Dodd, along with Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) formed the first Children’s Caucus.
In 1990, he worked to enact the Child Care and Development Block Grant program, which today provides care for more than 1.5 million families who might otherwise have been forced to quit their jobs or put their children in unsafe care. Dodd is a strong proponent of expanding the Child Care Tax Credit, to make child care more affordable to working families. He also created the Child Care Means Parents in School Program for Parents Seeking Higher Education to guarantee that parents have access to quality child care while they are in school.
