Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1826 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 1826
5	5	To implement or strengthen programs that increase the supply of quality
6	6	child care services by enhancing the wages of child care workers, and
7	7	for other purposes.
8	8	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
9	9	MARCH4, 2025
10	10	Mr. C
11	11	ARBAJAL(for himself, Mr. LAWLER, Ms. DAVIDSof Kansas, and Mr.
12	12	C
13	13	ISCOMANI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
14	14	mittee on Education and Workforce
15	15	A BILL
16	16	To implement or strengthen programs that increase the sup-
17	17	ply of quality child care services by enhancing the wages
18	18	of child care workers, and for other purposes.
19	19	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
20	20	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
21	21	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
22	22	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Care Workforce 4
23	23	Act’’. 5
24	24	SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 6
25	25	The purpose of this Act is to establish a pilot pro-7
26	26	gram to increase the supply of quality child care services 8
27	27	by providing funding to States, Indian Tribes, and Tribal 9
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31	31	organizations to implement or strengthen programs to 1
32	32	supplement the wages of eligible child care workers, in 2
33	33	order to— 3
34	34	(1) attract and retain eligible child care work-4
35	35	ers; 5
36	36	(2) improve eligible child care worker well- 6
37	37	being; 7
38	38	(3) improve the quality of child care services; 8
39	39	and 9
40	40	(4) increase the availability of affordable child 10
41	41	care services. 11
42	42	SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 12
43	43	In this Act: 13
44	44	(1) C
45	45	HILD CARE WORKER .—The term ‘‘child 14
46	46	care worker’’ means any individual whose primary 15
47	47	and daily focus of work is— 16
48	48	(A) providing child care services, including 17
49	49	direct care and education services, to children 18
50	50	for a family child care provider or other child 19
51	51	care provider, or a provider of early childhood 20
52	52	education, that is in compliance with any licens-21
53	53	ing or registration standards, or regulations, of 22
54	54	the State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization 23
55	55	involved; and 24
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59	59	(B) providing the child care services in a 1
60	60	center-based or home-based setting. 2
61	61	(2) I
62	62	NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 3
63	63	has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 4
64	64	Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 5
65	65	Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 6
66	66	(3) S
67	67	TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of 7
68	68	the several States, the District of Columbia, the Vir-8
69	69	gin Islands of the United States, the Commonwealth 9
70	70	of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the 10
71	71	Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 11
72	72	(4) T
73	73	RIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘‘Tribal 12
74	74	organization’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘trib-13
75	75	al organization’’ in section 658P of the Child Care 14
76	76	and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 15
77	77	U.S.C. 9858n). 16
78	78	SEC. 4. PILOT PROGRAM. 17
79	79	(a) E
80	80	STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Health and 18
81	81	Human Services (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec-19
82	82	retary’’) shall establish a pilot program to award competi-20
83	83	tive grants to States, Indian Tribes, and Tribal organiza-21
84	84	tions to supplement the wages of eligible child care work-22
85	85	ers. 23
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89	89	(b) CONSIDERATIONS.—In selecting States, Indian 1
90	90	Tribes, and Tribal organizations to receive grants under 2
91	91	this section, the Secretary shall consider— 3
92	92	(1) the number of children under the age of 5 4
93	93	residing in the State or on the Tribal land of the In-5
94	94	dian Tribe or Tribal organization; 6
95	95	(2) the number of child care workers working in 7
96	96	licensed, regulated, or registered programs in the 8
97	97	State or on the Tribal land; 9
98	98	(3) the average wage of child care workers 10
99	99	working in the State or on the Tribal land; 11
100	100	(4) the percentage of families in the State or on 12
101	101	the Tribal land who are eligible for child care sub-13
102	102	sidies under the Child Care and Development Block 14
103	103	Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9857 et seq.) but do 15
104	104	not receive the subsidies; and 16
105	105	(5) the need for additional child care workers in 17
106	106	the State or on the Tribal land. 18
107	107	(c) E
108	108	LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible for a grant under 19
109	109	this section, a State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization 20
110	110	shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, 21
111	111	in such manner, and containing such information as the 22
112	112	Secretary may require, including— 23
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116	116	(1) information showing a significant need for 1
117	117	increased numbers of child care workers and in-2
118	118	creased wages among child care workers; 3
119	119	(2) a commitment to using the grant funds to 4
120	120	supplement the wages of low-wage eligible child care 5
121	121	workers; 6
122	122	(3) a plan for using the grant funds to supple-7
123	123	ment the wages of eligible child care workers, includ-8
124	124	ing— 9
125	125	(A) the criteria that will be used to deter-10
126	126	mine which child care workers are eligible to re-11
127	127	ceive the wage supplements; 12
128	128	(B) a description of how funds will be 13
129	129	prioritized for areas with greatest need, includ-14
130	130	ing areas with overall staffing challenges, un-15
131	131	derserved geographic areas, areas with short-16
132	132	ages of programs that serve low-income children 17
133	133	and families, and areas with shortages of pro-18
134	134	grams that serve infants and toddlers, that 19
135	135	serve children with disabilities, or that offer 20
136	136	child care services during nontraditional hours; 21
137	137	and 22
138	138	(C) a description of how the wage supple-23
139	139	ments will be provided to eligible child care 24
140	140	workers (directly, through the employer, or 25
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144	144	through a trusted intermediary) and how the 1
145	145	supplements will be provided in a timely man-2
146	146	ner; 3
147	147	(4) a plan to engage in a public awareness cam-4
148	148	paign directed at eligible child care workers; 5
149	149	(5) a description of the measures that will be 6
150	150	used to assess the impact of the wage supplement 7
151	151	pilot program on attraction and retention of eligible 8
152	152	child care workers, eligible child care worker well- 9
153	153	being, child care services quality, and availability of 10
154	154	affordable child care services, provided by eligible 11
155	155	child care workers; 12
156	156	(6) a description of how the pilot program will 13
157	157	contribute to the State’s or Tribe’s overall plan for 14
158	158	increasing eligible child care worker compensation; 15
159	159	(7) a description of the plan for addressing and 16
160	160	minimizing any destabilization that may occur after 17
161	161	the grant funds are expended; and 18
162	162	(8) such other information as the Secretary 19
163	163	may require. 20
164	164	SEC. 5. USE OF FUNDS. 21
165	165	(a) I
166	166	NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 22
167	167	(c), a State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization that re-23
168	168	ceives a grant under section 4 shall use the grant funds 24
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172	172	solely to supplement the wages of eligible child care work-1
173	173	ers. 2
174	174	(b) R
175	175	EQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out subsection (a), 3
176	176	a State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization shall— 4
177	177	(1) disburse the wage supplements to eligible 5
178	178	child care workers not less frequently than quarterly; 6
179	179	(2) target grant funding based on the areas de-7
180	180	scribed in section 4(c)(3)(B); 8
181	181	(3) provide to eligible child care workers edu-9
182	182	cation on any effect the wage supplements may have 10
183	183	on taxes or public benefit eligibility; and 11
184	184	(4) inform eligible child care workers that ac-12
185	185	ceptance, of the wage supplements, is voluntary. 13
186	186	(c) A
187	187	DMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—The State, Indian 14
188	188	Tribe, or Tribal organization may use not more than 10 15
189	189	percent of the grant funds to pay for administrative costs 16
190	190	associated with the administration of payments to eligible 17
191	191	child care workers, financial counseling for eligible child 18
192	192	care workers, including as described in subsection (b)(3), 19
193	193	and public awareness campaigns to make child care work-20
194	194	ers aware of the availability of such payments. 21
195	195	SEC. 6. EVALUATION. 22
196	196	The Secretary shall conduct an evaluation of the pilot 23
197	197	program to assess its effectiveness in— 24
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201	201	(1) attracting and retaining eligible child care 1
202	202	workers; 2
203	203	(2) improving eligible child care worker well- 3
204	204	being and the quality of child care services; and 4
205	205	(3) increasing the availability of affordable child 5
206	206	care services. 6
207	207	SEC. 7. REPORT. 7
208	208	Not later than 2 years after the date on which the 8
209	209	pilot program is implemented, the Secretary shall submit 9
210	210	a report to Congress containing the results of the evalua-10
211	211	tion. 11
212	212	SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 12
213	213	There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 13
214	214	this Act such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 14
215	215	2025 and each subsequent fiscal year. 15
216	216	SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. 16
217	217	This Act shall take effect 75 days after the date of 17
218	218	enactment of this Act. 18
219	219	Æ
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