U.S. Senators Katie Britt, Tim Kaine Introduce Boldest Bipartisan Proposal to Make Child Care More Affordable

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2024 – U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act and the Child Care Workforce Act—two pieces of legislation that together form the boldest bipartisan proposal to make child care more affordable and accessible by strengthening existing tax credits to lower child care costs and increase the supply of child care providers.

“Accessing and affording childcare is a costly challenge all too familiar to families across Alabama and our entire nation. This growing crisis has resulted in more and more parents, especially mothers, being forced to leave the workforce. I’m proud to join Senator Kaine in leading this bipartisan legislation to put parents back in the driver’s seat by empowering and equipping hardworking Americans to determine the best path for their family,” said Britt. “Our common ground solutions will help strengthen America’s labor force participation, fueling local Main Street small businesses and growing the economy.”

“I’ve heard from Virginians in every corner of the Commonwealth about how difficult it is to find affordable child care, and how low wages are driving dedicated child care workers out of a field they love,” said Kaine. “This crisis is holding our families, workers, and economy back, and I’m proud to be introducing the boldest bipartisan proposal to tackle it head on.”

The worsening child care crisis is holding families, child care workers, businesses, and our entire economy back. Across the country, too many families cannot find—or afford—the high-quality child care they need so parents can go to work and children can thrive. Over the last three decades, the cost of child care has increased by 220%, forcing families—and mothers, in particular—to make impossible choices. More than half of all families live in child care deserts. Meanwhile, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet on the poverty-level wages they are paid and child care providers are struggling to simply stay afloat. The crisis—which was exacerbated by the pandemic—is costing our economy dearly, to the tune of $122 billion in economic losses each year.

Specifically, the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act would make child care more affordable by:

• Increasing the size of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) and making it refundable, allowing lower income working families with out-of-pocket child care expenses to benefit from the credit for the first time. The proposal substantially expands the maximum CDCTC to $2,500 for families with one child and $4,000 for families with two or more children.
• Strengthening the Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP) to allow families to deduct 50% more in expenses (up to $7,500).
• Allowing eligible families to benefit from both the DCAP and the CDCTC when their child care expenses exceed the DCAP threshold. This will have big benefits for middle income families who currently do not access the CDCTC but have particularly high child care costs.
• Radically bolstering the underutilized Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit—commonly referred to as 45F—to encourage businesses to provide child care to their employees. The Kaine-Britt plan would increase the maximum credit from $150,000 to $500,000, and the percentage of expenses covered from 25% to 50%. The legislation also includes a larger incentive for small businesses—a maximum credit of $600,000—and allows for joint applications for groups of small businesses who want to pool resources.

Because many child care providers are forced out of the industry by low wages—which makes it even harder for families to find affordable child care—the Child Care Workforce Act would make it easier to access child care, by establishing a competitive grant program for states, localities, Tribes, and Tribal organizations that are interested in adopting or expanding pay supplement programs for child care workers to increase supply and reduce turnover. Within that program:

• Grantees would provide supplements, paid out at least quarterly, directly to both home-based and center-based licensed child care providers licensed by the state.
• There would be a required evaluation of impacts on turnover, quality of child care, availability of affordable childcare, and alleviating the financial burden on child care providers. Model programs exist in Virginia, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maine, and the District of Columbia, with evaluations demonstrating large effects on the supply of workers, educator turnover, and worker well-being and satisfaction. 

The proposal contains two bills because one proposes changes to existing tax credits, which best fits within the Senate Finance Committee’s jurisdiction, and the other authorizes a new pilot program, which fits the jurisdiction of the Senate HELP Committee. 

Full text of the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act and the Child Care Workforce Act are available here and here, respectively.

Britt is committed to supporting families throughout all seasons, including early childhood development. To support families she has introduced the More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (MOMS) Act. She has cosponsored the Childcare Worker Opportunity Act, NIH IMPROVE Act, and Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act.

Britt is also at the forefront of the Senate working on legislation that empowers parents to better address the mental health crisis exacerbated by social media. She introduced the Youth Mental Health Research Act and the Kids Off Social Media Act.

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