By ensuring families have access to affordable child care, we can empower parents to pursue careers, grow our economy, and secure a brighter future for the next generation.
The Chamber of Mothers calls on Congress to pass the Child Care for Working Families Act (H.R.4418/ S.2295). This comprehensive legislation would make high-quality, affordable child care accessible to working families by:
- Ensuring all working families have access to high-quality child care through the Birth Through Five Child Care and Early Learning Program.
- Caps child care costs at 7% of a family’s income, regardless of the number of children they have. Families earning below 85 percent of the state median income will have free child care.
- Provides grants to cover start-up and licensing costs for new child care providers.
- Increases child care options for children whose parents work non-traditional hours, such as law enforcement, and children with disabilities.
- Supports training and professional development for the early childhood workforce.
- Pays child care workers a living wage and achieves parity with elementary school teachers who have similar credentials and experience.
- Creates a federal-state partnership where the federal government covers 90 percent of the cost of high-quality child care services and the State covers only 10 percent.
- Providing states with Building an Affordable System for Early Education (BASE) Grants to help stabilize child care programs and enable child care providers to offer high-quality services for families.
- These funds must be used to provide sustained, increased staff wages and graduated pay increases. Funds can also be used for staff bonuses and benefits, staff professional development, to help pay for rent or mortgages, and improve access to inclusive and developmentally appropriate care for children with disabilities.
- Providing States with funding to establish and expand a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
- Providing funding for Head Start agencies to provide full school year and full school day services, and ensure Head Start and Early Head Start teachers and staff receive wages that are comparable to wages for elementary educators with similar credentials and experience in the State or, at a minimum, receive a living wage
CLICK HERE [Insert Link to PDF memo] to view the Chamber of Mothers’ memo of support for the Child Care for Working Families Act (H.R.4418/ S.2295).
Click here to urge your Members of Congress to pass the Child Care for Working Families Act (H.R.4418/ S.2295).
Additional Child Care Legislation
The Chamber of Mothers also supports the following pieces of legislation that would help address the child care crisis.
Child Care Availability and Affordability Act (H.R.1827/ S.847): Bipartisan bill that increases the size of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and makes it refundable, strengthens the DCAP program, and bolsters the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit.
Child Care Workforce Act (S.846/ H.R.1826): Bipartisan bill that would establish a competitive grant program for States, localities, Indian Tribes, and Tribal organizations who are interested in adopting or expanding pay supplement programs for child care workers to increase supply and reduce turnover.
Leveraging Estate Gains for America’s Children and Youth (LEGACY) Act (Pending): This bill would create a designated revenue stream to supplement the Child Care Development Fund by transferring 15% of revenue generated from the estate ta
