WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-N.C.) to introduce the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Reauthorization Act of 2022. Their proposal, which serves as an alternative approach to the overbearing child care proposals Democrats pushed in their reckless “Build Back Better” tax and spending bill, works to improve affordability of child care programs and protects the ability of parents to choose the provider that best fits their family’s needs.
 
“The CCDBG has worked as a bipartisan solution for decades, providing families with flexible child care options – including in rural areas. Instead of completely rewriting the playbook and adding new top-down entitlement programs, our legislation will expand eligibility for CCDBG while keeping costs low for hardworking families,” Grassley said.
 
Rather than create two new rigid federal child care and preschool entitlement programs, as the Democrats proposed in their tax and spending bill, the CCDBG Reauthorization Act of 2022 makes responsible enhancements to the historically bipartisan CCDBG program that empowers parents to select the child care option that is best for their family. This program has assisted working families with their child care and preschool needs for the last 30 years. Specifically, the reauthorization:
 
  • Increases family eligibility for CCDBG;
  • Ensures an eligible family making less than 75 percent State Median Income (SMI) pays no child care copay and that no eligible family has a copay greater than 7 percent of family income;
  • Improves reimbursement rates for child care providers so they can recruit and retain qualified staff;
  • Supports the education and professional development of child care staff;
  • Expands the supply and capacity of child care providers so working parents have multiple quality child care options to best suit their family’s needs; and
  • Removes unnecessary regulations that restrict home-based child care providers in rural areas.

Other cosponsors of the bill include Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

Read the full text of the bill by clicking HERE.
 

-30-