McClellan praises Biden’s American Families Plan, urges Virginia to go further

Jennifer McClellan released a statement today applauding President Biden’s American Families Plan and emphasizing the need for Virginia to go further as the Commonwealth rebuilds from the pandemic.

“I’m pleased to see that President Biden is coming to Yorktown on Monday to highlight this critical proposal for education and the care economy. President Biden’s American Families Plan is exactly the investment Virginia needs to strengthen the care economy, which I’ll lead as governor,” said McClellan, a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for governor. “I have called for a record investment in early childhood education with universal childcare by 2025 because of how crucial the care economy is to reviving our economic and education systems. Affordable child care is infrastructure, and as governor, it will be one of my top priorities.

“Under a McClellan administration, I’ll partner with the Biden administration to ensure that every family will have access to affordable quality child care and every worker has paid leave in Virginia. I’m excited to work with President Biden to enact our ambitious proposals and rebuild our Commonwealth better, bolder, and stronger.”

McClellan has made Universal Child Care a top priority in her campaign, calling for a $4 billion investment in providing access to affordable child care for more than 500,000 Virginia children. Her proposal would provide Virginia families that earn up to 200% of the poverty level with waivers for free child care, ensure no family in Virginia will pay above 7% of their income for child care, and create more than 80,000 new jobs for Virginians in the new child care system.

Last month, McClellan introduced her Economic Recovery Plan last month to uplift Virginia workers and families, including her plans to:

• Pass paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave
• Extend and modernizing unemployment insurance
• Expedite the transition to $15 minimum wage
• Allow 500,000 Virginia gig workers access to unemployment benefits; removing barriers for collective bargaining, including for public employees
• Enact universal child care by 2025 to help Virginia parents return to work and employ 80,000 more early childhood educators.
• Increase housing stability by investing $108 million annually in the statewide  rent relief program, establishing a statewide housing voucher system, and creating a new home ownership program specifically designed to assist historically disadvantaged communities to build intergenerational wealth for their children and grandchildren.
• Build a clean and modern economy by:
• Build on the success of the Virginia Clean Economy Act with further action to expand deployment of solar and wind technology and invest in clean vehicles
• Democratize solar and wind energy.
• Invest in the training of the future workforce to create a the new clean energy economy
• Invest in strengthening Virginia’s agricultural industry and, growing the multi-modal transportation system through Virginia’s ports by working collaboratively with the Biden- Harris “Build Back Better Buy American Plan” to increase the speed of supply chains for Virginia goods
• Work to connect every corner of the Commonwealth by continuing efforts to develop high-speed rail infrastructure.
• Expand broadband access to unserved and underserved areas investing a minimum of $50 million annually in the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI)