[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1539 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1539

To provide for the acquisition, construction, and improvement of child 
         care facilities or equipment, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 5, 1999

 Mr. Dodd (for himself and Mr. DeWine) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for the acquisition, construction, and improvement of child 
         care facilities or equipment, and for other purposes.

    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 Facilities Financing 
Act''.

SEC. 2. TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Child care facility.--The term ``child care facility'' 
        means a center-based or home-based child care facility.
            (2) Eligible intermediary.--The term ``eligible 
        intermediary'' means a private, nonprofit intermediary 
        organization that has demonstrated experience in--
                    (A) providing technical or financial assistance for 
                the construction and renovation of physical facilities;
                    (B) providing technical or financial assistance to 
                child care providers; and
                    (C) securing private sources for capital financing 
                of child care or other low-income community 
                development.
            (3) Eligible recipient.--The term ``eligible recipient'' 
        means--
                    (A) any existing or new center-based or home-based 
                child care provider that provides services to eligible 
                children under a program carried out under the Child 
                Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 
                9858 et seq.), or another program serving low-income 
                children as determined by the Secretary; and
                    (B) any organization in the process of establishing 
                a center-based or home-based child care program or 
                otherwise seeking to provide child care services to 
                children described in subparagraph (A).
            (4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Health and Human Services.
    (b) Grant Authority.--The Secretary may award grants on a 
competitive basis in accordance with this section to eligible 
intermediaries to assist the intermediaries in carrying out the 
activities described in subsection (e).
    (c) Applications.--To be eligible to receive a grant under this 
section an eligible intermediary shall submit to the Secretary an 
application, in such form and containing such information as the 
Secretary may require.
    (d) Priority.--In awarding grants under this section the Secretary 
shall give a priority to applicants under subsection (c) that serve 
low-income areas or individuals.
    (e) Use of Funds.--
            (1) Revolving fund.--Each eligible intermediary that 
        receives a grant under this section shall deposit the grant 
        amount into a child care revolving fund established by the 
        eligible intermediary.
            (2) Payments from fund.--Subject to subsection (f), from 
        amounts deposited into the revolving fund under paragraph (1), 
        each eligible intermediary shall provide technical and 
        financial assistance (in the form of loans, grants, 
        investments, guarantees, interest subsidies, and other 
        appropriate forms of assistance) to eligible recipients to pay 
        for the Federal share of the cost of the acquisition, 
        construction, or improvement of child care facilities or 
        equipment, or for the improvement of related management and 
        business practices, for each such recipient. Funds may be used 
        solely for the purpose of providing technical or financial 
        assistance.
            (3) Loan repayments and investment proceeds.--Any amount 
        received by an eligible intermediary from an eligible recipient 
        in the form of a loan repayment or investment proceeds shall be 
        deposited into the child care revolving fund of the eligible 
        intermediary for redistribution to other eligible recipients in 
        accordance with this section.
    (f) Federal Share.--
            (1) In general.--The Federal share of the cost described in 
        subsection (e)(2) shall be not more than 50 percent.
            (2) Non-federal share.--The non-Federal share of the cost 
        may be provided in cash or in kind, fairly evaluated, including 
        plant, equipment, or services.
    (g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $50,000,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2000 through 2004.
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