II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 535
To reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990,
to improve access to relative caregivers, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. B
ANKSintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant
Act of 1990, to improve access to relative caregivers,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Respect Parents’ 4
Childcare Choices Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE CHILD CARE AND DEVELOP-6
MENT BLOCK GRANT ACT OF 1990. 7
(a) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 8
658B of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act 9
of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858) is amended by striking ‘‘this 10
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subchapter’’ and all that follows and inserting the fol-1
lowing: ‘‘this subchapter, $14,000,000,000 for each of fis-2
cal years 2026 through 2031.’’. 3
(b) A
PPLICATION AND PLAN.—Section 658E(c) of 4
the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 5
(42 U.S.C. 9858c(c)) is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (2)— 7
(A) by striking subparagraph (A) and in-8
serting the following: 9
‘‘(A) P
ARENTAL CHOICE OF PROVIDERS .— 10
Provide assurances that— 11
‘‘(i) the parent or parents of each eli-12
gible child within the State, who receives 13
or is offered child care services for which 14
financial assistance is provided under this 15
subchapter, are given the option to receive 16
a child care certificate as defined in section 17
658P(2); and 18
‘‘(ii) all direct services authorized in 19
this subchapter will be provided via child 20
care certificates.’’; 21
(B) in subparagraph (F)— 22
(i) in clause (i), by inserting ‘‘(not in-23
cluding in-home child care providers and 24
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relative caregivers)’’ after ‘‘within the 1
State’’; and 2
(ii) in clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘(other 3
than in-home child care providers and rel-4
ative caregivers)’’ after ‘‘described in 5
clause (i)’’; 6
(C) in subparagraph (G)— 7
(i) in clause (i)— 8
(I) in the first sentence, by in-9
serting ‘‘(if any)’’ after ‘‘within the 10
State’’; and 11
(II) in the second sentence, by 12
inserting ‘‘, except that such require-13
ments shall not apply to in-home child 14
care providers and relative caregivers’’ 15
before the period; and 16
(ii) in clause (ii)(I), by striking 17
‘‘(which may include encouraging the pur-18
suit of postsecondary education),’’; 19
(D) in subparagraph (K)(i)(II)— 20
(i) in item (aa), by inserting ‘‘(not in-21
cluding in-home child care providers and 22
relative caregivers or their facilities)’’ be-23
fore the semicolon; and 24
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(ii) in item (bb), by inserting ‘‘(not in-1
cluding in-home child care providers and 2
relative caregivers or their facilities)’’ after 3
‘‘facility in the State’’; 4
(E) in subparagraph (M), by adding at the 5
end the following flush sentence: 6
‘‘Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed 7
to imply that States are required to provide a 8
portion of the delivery of direct services through 9
grants or contracts.’’; 10
(F) in subparagraph (N)— 11
(i) by striking ‘‘(N)’’ and all that pre-12
cedes clause (i) and inserting the following: 13
‘‘(N) P
ROTECTION FOR WORKING AND 14
NEWLY MARRIED PARENTS .—’’; 15
(ii) in clause (i)(I)— 16
(I) by striking ‘‘85 percent of’’; 17
and 18
(II) by striking ‘‘of the same 19
size’’ and inserting ‘‘with the same 20
number of children and parents as 21
prescribed in section 658P(4)’’; 22
(iii) in clause (iii)— 23
(I) by inserting before ‘‘At the 24
option’’ the following: 25
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‘‘(I) CESSATION OF WORK , 1
TRAINING, OR EDUCATION.—’’; and 2
(II) by adding at the end the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(II) M
ARRIAGE OF AN UNMAR -5
RIED PARENT.—The plan shall certify 6
that the State will not terminate as-7
sistance provided to carry out this 8
subchapter based on a factor con-9
sisting of an unmarried parent’s mar-10
riage which causes the family income 11
to rise above the State median income 12
for a family with the same number of 13
children and parents as prescribed in 14
section 658P(4), without continuing 15
the assistance for at least 6 months 16
after such marriage.’’; 17
(iv) in clause (iv)— 18
(I) by striking ‘‘for children of 19
parents’’ and inserting the following: 20
‘‘for children of— 21
‘‘(I) parents’’; and 22
(II) by striking ‘‘85 percent of 23
the State median income for a family 24
of the same size’’ and inserting the 25
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following: ‘‘the State median income 1
for a family with the same number of 2
children and parents as prescribed in 3
section 658P(4); or 4
‘‘(II) parents who married fol-5
lowing the initial determination or 6
most recent redetermination whose 7
family income now exceeds the State’s 8
income limit to qualify for such assist-9
ance due to the addition of their 10
spouse’s income.’’; and 11
(G) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(W) N
OTIFICATION OF PROGRAM COV -13
ERAGE FOR RELATIVE CAREGIVERS .—The plan 14
shall certify that the State will— 15
‘‘(i) clearly post on the State’s website 16
described in subparagraph (E)(III); and 17
‘‘(ii) annually notify the parents of 18
each eligible child receiving a child care 19
certificate under this subchapter that such 20
certificates may be used— 21
‘‘(I) as a payment to a relative 22
caregiver including the child’s grand-23
parent, great grandparent, adult sib-24
ling, aunt, or uncle; or 25
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‘‘(II) as a disbursement to mar-1
ried parents in which at least one par-2
ent is acting as a relative caregiver to 3
the parent’s own eligible child, so long 4
as such families are in compliance 5
with the income and work require-6
ments described in section 7
658P(4)(C)(iii). 8
‘‘(X) R
EVIEW OF REQUIREMENTS ON REL -9
ATIVE CAREGIVERS.—The plan shall include 10
certification that the State will (at least once 11
every 5 years) review State and local regula-12
tions, requirements, and licensing standards ap-13
plicable to relative caregivers to identify bur-14
densome or redundant requirements that are 15
unnecessary to protect the health and safety of 16
children and that— 17
‘‘(i) limit or lower the number of rel-18
ative caregivers who care for eligible chil-19
dren under this subchapter; or 20
‘‘(ii) prevent parents from choosing to 21
have a relative caregiver provide childcare 22
for their eligible child.’’; 23
(2) in paragraph (3)(E)(ii), by striking ‘‘70 24
percent to fund direct services (provided by the 25
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State) in accordance with paragraph (2)(A)’’ and in-1
serting ‘‘90 percent to fund direct services (provided 2
by the State) via child care certificates’’; and 3
(3) in paragraph (4)— 4
(A) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 5
subparagraph (D); and 6
(B) by inserting after subparagraph (B), 7
the following: 8
‘‘(C) P
AYMENT RATE.—The State plan 9
shall certify that the payment rate to relative 10
caregivers is not less than 75 percent of the 11
rate for family child care providers for children 12
of the same age and in the same geographic lo-13
cation.’’. 14
(c) L
IMITATIONS.—Section 658F(b)(2) of the Child 15
Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 16
U.S.C. 9858d(b)(2)) is amended— 17
(1) in the paragraph heading, by striking ‘‘S
EC-18
TARIAN’’ and inserting ‘‘RELIGIOUS’’; and 19
(2) by striking ‘‘sectarian’’ and inserting ‘‘reli-20
gious’’. 21
(d) I
MPROVING THEQUALITY OFCHILDCARE.—Sec-22
tion 658G of the Child Care and Development Block 23
Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858e) is amended— 24
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(1) in subsection (a), by striking paragraphs 1
(2) and (3) and inserting the following: 2
‘‘(2) A
MOUNT OF RESERVATIONS .—Such State 3
shall reserve and use— 4
‘‘(A) not more than 9 percent of the funds 5
described in paragraph (1) each year to carry 6
out the activities described in paragraph (1); 7
and 8
‘‘(B) in addition to the funds reserved 9
under subparagraph (A), 3 percent of the funds 10
described in paragraph (1) to carry out the ac-11
tivities described in paragraph (1) and sub-12
section (b)(4), as such activities relate to the 13
quality of care for infants and toddlers.’’; and 14
(2) in subsection (b)(1)— 15
(A) in subparagraph (F), by adding ‘‘and’’ 16
at the end; 17
(B) in subparagraph (G), by striking ‘‘; 18
and’’ and inserting a period; and 19
(C) by striking subparagraph (H). 20
(e) R
EPORTS.—Section 658K(a) of the Child Care 21
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 22
9858i(a)) is amended— 23
(1) in paragraph (1)(B)(vii), by striking ‘‘home 24
care’’ and inserting ‘‘in-home care’’; and 25
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(2) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking ‘‘con-1
tracts,’’. 2
(f) H
OTLINE ANDWEBSITE.—Section 658L(b)(2)(B) 3
of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 4
1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858j(b)(2)(B)) is amended— 5
(1) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 6
(2) in clause (v), by striking the period and in-7
serting ‘‘; and’’; and 8
(3) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(vi) notice that the parents of eligible 10
children may use child care certificates— 11
‘‘(I) as a payment to a relative 12
caregiver including the child’s grand-13
parent, great grandparent, adult sib-14
ling, aunt, or uncle; or 15
‘‘(II) as a disbursement to mar-16
ried parents in which at least one par-17
ent is acting as a relative caregiver to 18
the parent’s own eligible child, so long 19
as such families are in compliance 20
with the income and work require-21
ments described in section 22
658P(4)(C)(iii).’’. 23
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(g) SECTARIANACTIVITIES.—Section 658M of the 1
Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 2
U.S.C. 9858k) is amended— 3
(1) by striking subsection (a); and 4
(2) by striking ‘‘(b) T
UITION.—With’’ and in-5
serting ‘‘With’’. 6
(h) N
ONDISCRIMINATION.—Section 658N of the 7
Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 8
U.S.C. 9858l) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (a)— 10
(A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘sec-11
tarian’’ and inserting ‘‘religious’’; 12
(B) in paragraph (3)— 13
(i) by striking subparagraph (A); and 14
(ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 15
(B) and (C) as subparagraphs (A) and 16
(B), respectively; and 17
(C) by striking paragraph (4) and insert-18
ing the following: 19
‘‘(4) P
ROTECTIONS FOR RELIGIOUS CHILD CARE 20
PROVIDERS.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A State receiving 22
funds under this subchapter shall ensure that— 23
‘‘(i) in licensing child care providers, 24
the State shall not impose any requirement 25
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on a religious organization that results in 1
the imposition of a greater burden on the 2
religious organization when compared to 3
the related burden imposed on any private 4
nonreligious organization; 5
‘‘(ii) in licensing child care providers, 6
the State shall not impose a requirement 7
on a religious organization to provide or 8
comply with any document, agreement, 9
covenant, memorandum of understanding, 10
policy, or regulation, or to provide an as-11
surance or notice, unless the State also im-12
poses that requirement on nonreligious or-13
ganizations; and 14
‘‘(iii) a religious organization receiving 15
funds under this subchapter that provides 16
child care services shall retain its inde-17
pendence from State and local govern-18
ments, including retaining the autonomy, 19
right of expression, religious character or 20
affiliation, authority over internal govern-21
ance, or other aspects of the independence 22
of such organization. 23
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‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—A religious organi-1
zation receiving funds under this subchapter 2
that provides child care services may— 3
‘‘(i) retain religious terms in the orga-4
nization’s name; 5
‘‘(ii) continue to carry out the organi-6
zation’s mission, including the definition, 7
development, practice, and expression of its 8
religious beliefs; 9
‘‘(iii) use the organization’s facilities 10
to provide a program without concealing, 11
removing, or altering religious art, icons, 12
scriptures, or other symbols from the fa-13
cilities; 14
‘‘(iv) select, promote, or dismiss the 15
members of the organization’s governing 16
body, and the organization’s employees, on 17
the basis of their acceptance of or adher-18
ence to the religious tenets of the organiza-19
tion; and 20
‘‘(v) include religious references in the 21
organization’s mission statement and other 22
chartering or governing documents. 23
‘‘(C) R
ELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS .—A reli-24
gious organization’s exemptions, as provided in 25
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title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 1
U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) (including exemptions 2
from prohibitions of employment discrimination 3
in section 702(a) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e– 4
1(a))), title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 5
(42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), title IX of the Edu-6
cation Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et 7
seq.), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 8
1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.), the Religious 9
Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 10
2000bb et seq.), the Religious Land Use and 11
Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (42 12
U.S.C. 2000cc et seq.), or any other provision 13
in law providing an exemption for a religious 14
organization, shall not be waived because of the 15
religious organization’s receipt of funds under 16
this subchapter. 17
‘‘(D) P
RIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—Any re-18
ligious organization that alleges a violation of 19
its rights under this paragraph and seeks to en-20
force such rights— 21
‘‘(i) may bring an action in a court of 22
competent jurisdiction and assert that vio-23
lation as a claim, or assert that violation 24
as a defense in a civil action; and 25
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‘‘(ii) may obtain appropriate relief, in-1
cluding attorney’s fees, against an entity 2
or agency that committed such violation.’’; 3
and 4
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘sectarian’’ 5
each place it appears and inserting ‘‘religious’’. 6
(i) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 658P of the Child Care 7
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 8
9858n) is amended— 9
(1) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the 10
following: 11
‘‘(2) C
HILD CARE CERTIFICATE.— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘child care 13
certificate’ means a certificate (that may be a 14
check or other disbursement) that is issued by 15
a State or local government under this sub-16
chapter directly to a parent who may use such 17
certificate— 18
‘‘(i) as payment for child care serv-19
ices; 20
‘‘(ii) as a deposit for child care serv-21
ices if such a deposit is required of other 22
children being cared for by the provider; or 23
‘‘(iii) as a disbursement to married 24
parents described in paragraph (4)(C)(iii) 25
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in which at least one parent is acting as a 1
relative caregiver to the parent’s own child, 2
so long as such disbursement is not less 3
than the payment rate set for other rel-4
ative caregivers for children of the same 5
age and in the same geographic location. 6
‘‘(B) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 7
in this subchapter shall be construed to allow 8
State or Federal agencies to preclude the use of 9
such certificates for child care services provided 10
by a religious child care provider if such serv-11
ices are freely chosen by the parent. Such cer-12
tificates may be expended by providers for any 13
religious purpose or activity that is a part of 14
the child care services, including religious wor-15
ship and instruction. 16
‘‘(C) N
OT GRANTS OR CONTRACTS .—For 17
purposes of this subchapter, child care certifi-18
cates shall not be considered to be grants or 19
contracts.’’; 20
(2) in paragraph (4), by striking subparagraphs 21
(B) and (C) and inserting the following: 22
‘‘(B) whose family assets do not exceed 23
$1,000,000 (as certified by a member of such 24
family); and 25
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‘‘(C) who— 1
‘‘(i) resides in a family that is headed 2
by an unmarried person who is the child’s 3
parent, who is working or attending a job 4
training or educational program, and that 5
has a family income that does not exceed 6
85 percent of the State median income for 7
a family with the same number of children 8
headed by an unmarried person, based on 9
the most recent data that is published by 10
the Bureau of the Census; 11
‘‘(ii) resides in a family that is headed 12
by two married persons who are the child’s 13
parents, who are both working or attend-14
ing a job training or educational program, 15
and that has a family income that does not 16
exceed 70 percent of the State median in-17
come for a family with the same number of 18
children headed by two married persons, 19
based on the most recent data that is pub-20
lished by the Bureau of the Census; 21
‘‘(iii) resides in a family that is head-22
ed by two married persons who are the 23
child’s parents, and who work a combined 24
total of at least 40 hours per week and 25
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that has one or both parents acting as a 1
relative caregiver for the child, with a fam-2
ily income that does not exceed 70 percent 3
of the State median income for a family 4
with the same number of children headed 5
by two married persons, based on the most 6
recent data that is published by the Bu-7
reau of the Census; or 8
‘‘(iv) is receiving, or needs to receive, 9
protective services and resides with a par-10
ent or parents not described in clause (i), 11
(ii), or (iii).’’; 12
(3) in paragraph (6)— 13
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘a 14
group home child care provider’’; and 15
(B) by striking subparagraph (B) and in-16
serting the following: 17
‘‘(B) a relative caregiver or in-home child 18
care provider, if such caregiver or other pro-19
vider complies with any applicable requirements 20
that govern child care provided by the type of 21
provider involved.’’; 22
(4) in paragraph (7)— 23
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(A) by striking ‘‘one individual who pro-1
vides’’ and inserting ‘‘one or more individuals 2
who provide’’; and 3
(B) by striking ‘‘as the sole caregiver, 4
and’’; 5
(5) by redesignating paragraphs (8), (9), (10), 6
(11), (12), (13), (14), and (15) as paragraphs (9), 7
(10), (11), (13), (14), (15), (16), and (17), respec-8
tively; 9
(6) by inserting after paragraph (7), the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(8) I
N-HOME CHILD CARE PROVIDER .—The 12
term ‘in-home child care provider’ means an indi-13
vidual who provides child care services (excluding 14
services provided by a family child care provider) in 15
the child’s own home.’’; and 16
(7) by inserting after paragraph (11) (as so re-17
designated), the following: 18
‘‘(12) R
ELATIVE CAREGIVER.—The term ‘rel-19
ative caregiver’ means a child care provider that is 20
18 years of age or older who provides child care 21
services only to eligible children who are, by affinity 22
or consanguinity, or by court decree, the child (if the 23
parent or parents acting as a relative caregiver are 24
married and work a combined total of at least 40 25
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hours per week), grandchild, great grandchild, sib-1
ling, niece, or nephew of such provider.’’. 2
(j) P
ARENTALRIGHTS.—Section 658Q of the Child 3
Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 4
U.S.C. 9858o) is amended— 5
(1) by striking ‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—’’; and 6
(2) by striking subsection (b). 7
(k) F
RAUDPREVENTION ANDINCREASEDRELATIVE 8
C
AREGIVING.—The Child Care and Development Block 9
Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9857 et seq.) is amended 10
by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 658T. PILOT GRANT PROGRAM TO PREVENT FRAUD. 12
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 13
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall 14
establish and implement a 2-year pilot program to award 15
grants to States to increase the State’s ability to— 16
‘‘(1) verify that children receiving assistance 17
under this subchapter meet eligibility criteria at the 18
time of eligibility determination and redetermination; 19
‘‘(2) prevent payments to ineligible children; 20
‘‘(3) verify the relationship of relative caregivers 21
to eligible children; 22
‘‘(4) identify cases of fraud and intentional pro-23
gram violation by child care providers; and 24
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‘‘(5) recover payments that are the result of 1
fraud. 2
‘‘(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 3
is authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 to carry out 4
this section. 5
‘‘SEC. 658U. INCREASING RELATIVE CAREGIVING. 6
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 7
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall 8
submit to Congress and make publicly available a report 9
on regulations that prevent family members from acting 10
as relative caregivers to eligible children under this sub-11
chapter. 12
‘‘(b) C
ONTENTS.—The report required under this 13
section shall include the following: 14
‘‘(1) A list of the provisions under this sub-15
chapter and other Federal laws that decrease the 16
number of relative caregivers. 17
‘‘(2) A description of State or local government 18
policies, regulations, or licensing standards that de-19
crease the number of relative caregivers or that 20
place burdensome requirements upon such caregivers 21
beyond basic health and safety requirements. 22
‘‘(3) Recommendations and legislative proposals 23
for Congress, State legislatures, and State lead 24
agencies to lessen or remove unnecessary, burden-25
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some regulations that prevent family members (in-1
cluding parents, grandparents, adult siblings, aunts, 2
and uncles) from providing child care for eligible 3
children under this subchapter. 4
‘‘(c) P
ILOTPROGRAMS.—Not later than 1 year after 5
the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary 6
shall establish and implement a 2-year pilot program to 7
award grants to States to carry out innovative State pro-8
grams to promote child care provided by relative care-9
givers and to increase the number of relative caregivers 10
providing child care to eligible children under this sub-11
chapter. 12
‘‘(d) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 13
is authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 to carry out 14
this section.’’. 15
SEC. 3. REPEAL OF CREDIT FOR EXPENSES FOR HOUSE-16
HOLD AND DEPENDENT CARE SERVICES. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subpart A of part IV of sub-18
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 19
1986 is amended by striking section 21. 20
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 21
(1) Section 23(f)(1) of the Internal Revenue 22
Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows: 23
‘‘(1) R
ULES FOR MARRIED COUPLES .— 24
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‘‘(A) MARRIED COUPLES MUST FILE JOINT 1
RETURN.—If the taxpayer is married at the 2
close of the taxable year, the credit shall be al-3
lowed under subsection (a) only if the taxpayer 4
and his spouse file a joint return for the taxable 5
year. 6
‘‘(B) M
ARITAL STATUS.—An individual le-7
gally separated from his spouse under a decree 8
of divorce or of separate maintenance shall not 9
be considered as married. 10
‘‘(C) C
ERTAIN MARRIED INDIVIDUALS LIV -11
ING APART.—If— 12
‘‘(i) an individual who is married and 13
who files a separate return— 14
‘‘(I) maintains as his home a 15
household which constitutes for more 16
than one-half of the taxable year the 17
principal place of abode of a quali-18
fying individual, and 19
‘‘(II) furnishes over half of the 20
cost of maintaining such household 21
during the taxable year, and 22
‘‘(ii) during the last 6 months of such 23
taxable year such individual’s spouse is not 24
a member of such household, 25
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•S 535 IS
such individual shall not be considered as mar-1
ried.’’. 2
(2) Section 35(g)(6) of such Code is amended 3
to read as follows: 4
‘‘(6) M
ARITAL STATUS; CERTAIN MARRIED IN -5
DIVIDUALS LIVING APART .—Rules similar to the 6
rules of subparagraphs (B) and (C) of section 7
23(f)(1) shall apply for purposes of this section.’’. 8
(3) Section 129(a)(2)(C) of such Code is 9
amended to read as follows: 10
‘‘(C) M
ARITAL STATUS.—For purposes of 11
this paragraph, marital status shall be deter-12
mined under the rules of subparagraphs (B) 13
and (C) of section 23(f)(1).’’. 14
(4) Section 129(b)(2) of such Code is amended 15
to read as follows: 16
‘‘(2) S
PECIAL RULES FOR SPOUSE WHO IS A 17
STUDENT OR INCAPABLE OF CARING FOR SELF .—In 18
the case of a spouse who is a student or an indi-19
vidual described in subsection (e)(1)(B)(ii)(III) (de-20
termined without regard to the amount of time spent 21
in the taxpayer’s household), for purposes of para-22
graph (1), such spouse shall be deemed for each 23
month during which such spouse is a full-time stu-24
dent at an educational institution, or is an individual 25
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so described in subsection (e)(1)(B)(ii)(III), to be 1
gainfully employed and to have earned income of not 2
less than— 3
‘‘(A) $250 if there is 1 individual described 4
in subclauses (I) through (III) of subsection 5
(e)(1)(B) with respect to the taxpayer for the 6
taxable year, or 7
‘‘(B) $500 if there are 2 or more such in-8
dividuals with respect to the taxpayer for the 9
taxable year. 10
In the case of any husband and wife, this paragraph 11
shall apply with respect to only one spouse for any 12
month.’’. 13
(5) Section 129(e)(1) of such Code is amend-14
ed— 15
(A) by striking ‘‘The term’’ and inserting 16
the following: 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term’’, 18
(B) by striking ‘‘under section 21(b)(2) 19
(relating to expenses for household and depend-20
ent care services necessary for gainful employ-21
ment)’’, and 22
(C) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(B) E
MPLOYMENT-RELATED EX -24
PENSES.— 25
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘employ-1
ment-related expenses’ means amounts 2
paid for the following expenses, but only if 3
such expenses are incurred to enable the 4
taxpayer to be gainfully employed for any 5
period for which there are 1 or more quali-6
fying individuals with respect to the tax-7
payer: 8
‘‘(I) Expenses for household serv-9
ices, and 10
‘‘(II) Expenses for the care of a 11
qualifying individual. 12
Such term shall not include any amount 13
paid for services outside the taxpayer’s 14
household at a camp where the qualifying 15
individual stays overnight. 16
‘‘(ii) E
XCEPTION.—Employment-re-17
lated expenses described in clause (i) which 18
are incurred for services outside the tax-19
payer’s household shall be taken into ac-20
count only if incurred for the care of— 21
‘‘(I) a dependent of the taxpayer 22
(as defined in section 152(a)(1)) who 23
has not attained age 13, 24
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‘‘(II) a dependent of the taxpayer 1
(as defined in section 152, determined 2
without regard to subsections (b)(1), 3
(b)(2), and (d)(1)(B)) who is phys-4
ically or mentally incapable of caring 5
for himself or herself, who has the 6
same principal place of abode as the 7
taxpayer for more than one-half of 8
such taxable year, and who regularly 9
spends at least 8 hours each day in 10
the taxpayer’s household, or 11
‘‘(III) the spouse of the taxpayer, 12
if the spouse is physically or mentally 13
incapable of caring for himself or her-14
self, has the same principal place of 15
abode as the taxpayer for more than 16
one-half of such taxable year, and reg-17
ularly spends at least 8 hours each 18
day in the taxpayer’s household. 19
‘‘(iii) D
EPENDENT CARE CENTERS .— 20
Employment-related expenses described in 21
clause (i) which are incurred for services 22
provided outside the taxpayer’s household 23
by a dependent care center shall be taken 24
into account only if— 25
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‘‘(I) such center complies with all 1
applicable laws and regulations of a 2
State or unit of local government, and 3
‘‘(II) The requirements of clause 4
(ii) are met. 5
‘‘(iv) D
EPENDENT CARE CENTER DE -6
FINED.—For purposes of this paragraph, 7
the term ‘dependent care center’ means 8
any facility which— 9
‘‘(I) provides care for more than 10
six individuals (other than individuals 11
who reside at the facility), and 12
‘‘(II) receives a fee, payment, or 13
grant for providing services for any of 14
the individuals (regardless of whether 15
such facility is operated for profit).’’. 16
(6) Section 213 of such Code is amended by 17
striking subsection (e). 18
(7) Section 6213(g)(2) of such Code is amend-19
ed— 20
(A) in subparagraph (H), by striking ‘‘sec-21
tion 21 (relating to expenses for household and 22
dependent care services necessary for gainful 23
employment) or’’, and 24
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(B) in subparagraph (L), by striking 1
‘‘21,’’. 2
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act. 5
Æ
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