Fischer, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Expand Working Families’ Access to Child Care

Today, U.S. Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Susan Collins (R-ME), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced the Child Care Modernization Act which will reauthorize and improve the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) to help provide quality, affordable child care to America's working families.

For over three decades, the CCDBG has been the primary federal program to help provide families with access to quality child care. Despite bipartisan support, the program has not been reauthorized since 2014.

"Affordable, quality child care is a necessity - not a luxury. Unfortunately, that is not the reality, especially in rural areas. With the Child Care Modernization Act, we will reauthorize and improve the Child Care and Development Block Grant to provide significant, positive change in child care access and quality. The CCDBG has provided working families with child care services for 30 years; we will continue to work to fund the program to ensure these changes can be implemented and continue to serve families who need child care assistance. It's time to reauthorize this important program to extend child care to more hardworking American families," said Fischer, Gillibrand, Collins, and Hickenlooper.

Strengthen child care services by moving states to use cost estimation models for setting provider rates, which will adequately compensate child care providers.

Ensure parental choice by allowing states to develop a mixed delivery system of child care and preschool for children up to age 5 and before-school, after-school, and summer care for school-age children.

Increase child care supply by introducing a new grant program within the CCDBG framework to assist providers in creating and expanding the supply.

Improve state child care plans by improving support for families and communities, reducing barriers to the program, and increasing access and affordability to serve more families.

Assist in-home and rural child care providers by providing technical assistance, including strategies to support best business practices, and the development and use of shared services initiatives such as family child care home provider networks.

Reduce duplicative regulatory burdens on child care providers by ensuring states review their State and local health and safety requirements to determine redundancies and oversights that may exist.

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