[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2719 Introduced in House (IH)]





105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2719

  To establish a program to provide child care through public-private 
                             partnerships.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           Octobert 23, 1997

  Mr. Lowey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish a program to provide child care through public-private 
                             partnerships.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Child Care PublicPrivate Partnership 
Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF BUSINESS INCENTIVE GRANT PROGRAM.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall establish a 
program to make grants to--
            (1) businesses and consortia--
                    (A) to pay start-up costs incurred to provide child 
                care services; or
                    (B) to provide additional child care services;
        needed by the employees of such businesses; and
            (2) nonprofit business organizations to provide technical 
        information and assistance to enable businesses to provide 
        child care services.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE GRANTS.

    To be eligible to receive a grant under section 2, a business, 
nonprofit business organization, or consortium shall submit to the 
Secretary an application in accordance with section 4.

SEC. 4. APPLICATION.

    The application required by section 3 shall be submitted by a 
business, nonprofit business organization, or consortium at such time, 
in such form, and containing such information as the Secretary may 
require by rule, except that such application shall contain--
            (1) an assurance that the applicant shall expend, for the 
        purpose for which such grant is made, an amount not less than 
        200 percent of the amount of such grant;
            (2) an assurance that such applicant will expend such grant 
        for the use specified in paragraph (1) or (2) of section 2, as 
        the case may be;
            (3) an assurance that such applicant will employ strategies 
        to ensure that child care services provided by such applicant, 
        or provided with the technical information and assistance made 
        available by such applicant, are provided at affordable rates, 
        and on an equitable basis, to low- and moderate-income 
        employees;
            (4) an assurance that such applicant--
                    (A) in the case of a business or consortium, will 
                comply with all State and local licensing requirements 
                applicable to such business or consortium concerning 
                the provision of child care services; or
                    (B) in the case of a nonprofit business 
                organization, will employ procedures to ensure that 
                technical information and assistance provided under 
                this Act by such business organization will be provided 
                only to businesses that provide child care services in 
                compliance with all State and local licensing 
                requirements applicable to child care providers in such 
                State; and
            (5) in the case of a business or consortium, an assurance 
        that if the employees of such applicant do not require all the 
        child care services for which such grant and the funds required 
        by paragraph (1) are to be expended by such applicant, the 
        excess of such child care services shall be made available to 
        families in the community in which such applicant is located.

SEC. 5. SELECTION OF GRANTEES.

    For purposes of selecting applicants to receive grants under this 
Act, the Secretary shall give priority to businesses that have fewer 
than 100 full-time employees. To the extent practicable, the Secretary 
shall--
            (1) make grants equitably under this Act to applicants 
        located in all geographical regions of the United States; and
            (2) give priority to applicants for grants under section 
        2(1).

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act:
            (1) Business.--The term ``business'' means a person engaged 
        in commerce whose primary activity is not providing child care 
        services.
            (2) Child care services.--The term ``child care services'' 
        means care for a child that is--
                    (A) provided on the site at which a parent of such 
                child is employed or at a site nearby in the community; 
                and
                    (B) subsidized at least in part by the business 
                that employs such parent.
            (3) Consortium.--The term ``consortium'' means 2 or more 
        businesses acting jointly. A consortium may also include a 
        nonprofit private organization.
            (4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Health and Human Services.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
$25,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1998 through 2000.
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