118 S2777 IS: Child Care Stabilization Act U.S. Senate 2023-09-14 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

II118th CONGRESS1st SessionS. 2777IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESSeptember 13, 2023Mrs. Murray (for herself, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Wyden, Ms. Warren, Mr. Fetterman, Ms. Smith, Mr. Reed, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Welch, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Markey, Mr. Booker, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Casey, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Padilla, Mr. King, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Luján, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Schumer, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Brown, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Warnock, and Mr. Durbin) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsA BILLTo increase child care options for working families and support child care providers.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Child Care Stabilization Act.

2.

Child care stabilization grants

(a)

Purposes

The purposes of this section are to make child care services more accessible for families and to support the stability and quality of child care providers by—(1)promoting the stability of the child care sector by providing a source of stable funding to eligible child care providers to help offset their operating expenses;(2)supporting sustained and increased wages for early childhood educators or other staff of eligible child care providers, in order to stabilize and grow the child care workforce without increasing costs for families;(3)expanding the supply and capacity of eligible child care providers to ensure working families have a range of high-quality, affordable child care options, in a variety of settings, that meet their unique needs; and(4)supporting access to child care services for communities facing a particular shortage of child care options, including child care services for infants and toddlers, child care services during nontraditional or extended hours, child care services in rural communities, and inclusive child care services for children with disabilities.(b)

Appropriation

In addition to amounts otherwise available, there is appropriated to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated to carry out the child care stabilization program established in section 2202 (other than subsection (d)(2)(E) of that section) of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (42 U.S.C. 9858 note) $16,000,000,000, to remain available until expended, for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028.(c)

Administration and technical assistance

The Secretary of Health and Human Services may reserve not more than 1 percent of the funding appropriated under subsection (b) for the costs of providing technical assistance, and for the administrative costs, to carry out that section 2202.