Fact Sheet from Democrats on Child Care Legislation
Fact Sheet from Democrats on Child Care Legislation
- Institutional AuthorsHouse Democratic Caucus
- Cross-ReferenceFor related news coverage, see the Tax Notes Today Table of Contents
for June 10, 1998. - Subject Area/Tax Topics
- Index Termslegislation, taxdependent care creditchild carebusiness credit
- Jurisdictions
- LanguageEnglish
- Tax Analysts Document NumberDoc 98-18474 (3 pages)
- Tax Analysts Electronic Citation98 TNT 111-31
DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NEWS
o Increases tax credits for three million additional working
families to help pay for child care;
o Provides after-school care for up to half a million children
per year;
o Establishes a business tax credit for companies providing
child care services;
o Creates a child care provider scholarship fund to train child
care workers;
o Establishes a tax credit for stay-at-home parents with
children under the age of four; and
o Improves child care safety and quality and enhances early
childhood development.
CHILD CARE BLOCK GRANT (CCDBG)
[1] Doubles the number of working families, including families with children under age three, that will receive child care subsidies by FY 2003 through an increase in mandatory funding for CCDBG and the increase provided in the Welfare Reform Bill. Cost: $7.5 billion over five years.
DEPENDENT CARE TAX CREDIT (DCTC) REFORM
o Increases the Dependent Care Tax Credit for all families with
less than $60,000 in income. The new DCTC would be a 50
percent credit for families with less than $30,000 in income
slowly phasing down to a 20 percent credit for families
earning more than $60,000. The provision provides an average
tax cut of $330 for eligible families or three million
families a year. Cost: $5.1 billion over 5 years.
o Establishes a tax credit for stay-at-home parents with
children under the age of four. The credit would be equivalent
to the average increase in tax relief provided to families
with a young child through the expansion of the DCTC.
Estimated Cost: $3.5 billion over five years.
o Prevents the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) from reducing the
DCTC.
ASSISTANCE FOR BUSINESSES
o Establishes a tax credit for businesses that provide child
care services for their employees by building or expanding
child care facilities, operating existing facilities, or
training child care workers. The credit covers 25% of
qualified costs, but may not exceed $150,000 per year. Cost:
$500 million over five years.
o Grants to Businesses -- Authorizes grants to business
consortia to improve access to affordable, local, quality
child care services through the states to start child care
centers. The consortium must be no fewer than five businesses
and must match $2 for every $1 of Federal finds and $1 of
state funds. Small businesses have priority funding. Cost: $75
million a year for five years.
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM
Provides after school care for up to half a million children per
year by expanding the 21st Century Community Learning Center
Program to provide funds to school-community partnerships to
establish or expand programs for school-aged children. Cost:
$800 million over five years.
o AFTER SCHOOL SNACKS -- Expands the number of programs and
students eligible to participate in the Child and Adult Care
Food Program (CACFP) at after-school programs. Current law
only allows low-income kids up to age 13 to get subsidized
snacks. This bill would extend that to age 18 and allow new
programs to participate. Costs: $46 million/1st year. $200
million over five years.
o FULL-SERVICE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS -- A full-service school
integrates the delivery of quality education with whatever
health, social and cultural services that are required in that
community. No net cost.
o JUVENILE JUSTICE -- Would direct existing juvenile justice
funds to after-school prevention programs in areas with high
crime or significant numbers of at-risk youth.
QUALITY FUND/EARLY LEARNING FUND
Establishes a new Model State's Early Learning Fund which
provides challenge grants to communities (distributed to
eligible states through CCDBG) to support programs to improve
early learning and the quality and safety of child care for
children up to five years old. States may use the funds in a
variety of activities including providing training to providers,
improved child-staff ratios, pay for comprehensive background
checks, expand parent education activities, and to improve the
availability of care for children with special needs. Cost: $3
billion over five years.
STANDARDS ENFORCEMENT FUND
o Steps up enforcement of state health and safety standards.
Building on the military's model child care program, this
proposed initiative will fund state efforts to improve
licensing systems and enforce child care health and safety
standards, including by increasing unannounced inspections of
child care settings. Cost: $500 million over five years.
CHILD CARE PROVIDER SCHOLARSHIP FUND
o Increases scholarships and training for child care providers.
The President proposed establishing a Child Care Provider
Scholarship Fund to enable states to provide Scholarship funds
to students working toward a child care credential. Eligible
child care workers must commit to remaining in the field for
at least one year for each year of assistance. Cost: $250
million over five years which will support 50,000 scholarships
per year.
RESEARCH AND EVALUATION FUND
Provides funding for data collection, research, and evaluation.
The research fund will also support a National Center on Child
Care Statistics and a child care hotline that connects parents
with local resource and referral agencies to help them identify
appropriate, quality child care for their children. Cost: $150
million over five years.
ADDITIONAL PROPOSALS
o CHILD AND ADULT FOOD PROGRAM -- Amends the National School
Lunch Act to increase reimbursement rates for family or group
day care homes under the child and adult care food program.
Costs: $225 million over 5 years. (First section on Tier 2
program -- $40 million a year, second section on sponsor
payments -- $5 million a year.)
o CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ACT -- Amends the National
Housing Act to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development to insure mortgages for: new or rehabilitated
child care and development facilities, including mortgage
insurance for fire-safety equipment loans; and (2) purchase or
refinance of existing child care and development facilities.
Establishes the Children's Development Commission which shall:
(1) issue facility standards and compliance certifications;
and (2) make loans not in excess of $50,000 for facility
rehabilitation or renovation. Authorizes appropriations.
Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to conduct a study of
the availability of child care facility secondary mortgage
markets. Costs: $10 million one-time capped allocation of
funds.
SENSE OF CONGRESS
o It is the Sense of Congress that the funds appropriated under
this bill will occur within the context of a balanced budget
and be fully funded.
- Institutional AuthorsHouse Democratic Caucus
- Cross-ReferenceFor related news coverage, see the Tax Notes Today Table of Contents
for June 10, 1998. - Subject Area/Tax Topics
- Index Termslegislation, taxdependent care creditchild carebusiness credit
- Jurisdictions
- LanguageEnglish
- Tax Analysts Document NumberDoc 98-18474 (3 pages)
- Tax Analysts Electronic Citation98 TNT 111-31
