The child care industry in the US has long been underfunded and overlooked, but when COVID-19 hit in the spring of 2020, the lack of investment in our nation’s child care sector became a glaring problem. The pandemic pushed millions of parents into remote work and many into unemployment; child care centers closed; and schools moved to virtual learning. With everyone at home, families became acutely aware of what a lack of child care could do to the wellbeing of communities.

The pandemic pushed the child care sector to the brink. Centers all over the country closed and many have not been able to reopen. Now the industry faces a staffing problem as care workers are leaving the child care sector for lower-risk jobs with higher pay and benefits. This means that centers are taking fewer children, leaving many families without reliable child care.

When the care industry suffers, we all suffer. Parents can’t work, and mothers in particular take on a disproportionate amount of the care responsibilities at home. Women have been forced to step away from the workforce—suffering economic and emotional repercussions—in large part because our government has not prioritized funding a system that provides adequate affordable child care for hard-working families. This impacts all of us. Women’s declining participation in the workforce is costing the US economy $650 billion a year.

We have an opportunity to change all this. Right now, the Senate is negotiating a reconciliation package that could invest hundreds of billions of dollars into the care industry and make lasting change that could positively impact our communities for generations to come. It’s time for Congress to start treating child care as the essential infrastructure that it is.