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.
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