Senators unveil bipartisan proposal aimed at making child care more affordable

(WASHINGTON) — Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., unveiled a bipartisan package of bills Wednesday morning aimed at making child care more available and affordable for low- and middle-income families.

Their proposal would modify existing tax credits to help working parents afford child care. And it would implement a new program to keep child care workers in their jobs, the senators told ABC News.

“Every community that I go to in Virginia, from the most rural to the most urban, I hear the same thing: Why am I paying more than I would pay for college?” Kaine said of talking to parents about the cost of child care.

A recent report from the tax firm KPMG found that the cost of child care in the U.S. is rising at nearly double the pace of overall inflation. Between 1990 and April 2024, the cost of day care and preschool rose 263%, according to KPMG.

The rising costs have brought Britt and Kaine, who come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, together on this new package of bills.

“If you have that opportunity to stay home, I think it is remarkable. But if accessibility and affordability of child care is an impediment to you reentering, we felt like it was important for us to come together to have a common sense, bipartisan solution, something that actually had the opportunity to get some legs and get done so that we could achieve real results for American people and for parents all across the country,” Britt, a mom of two high schoolers, said.

The package that the senators are proposing looks to retool existing proposals that are meant to help employers and parents.

One of the bills they’re proposing increases the size of the child and dependent care tax credit to $2,500 for families with one child and $4,000 for families with multiple children. It would also make the credit refundable, a benefit the senators said will put more money into the pockets of low-income families.

“It was about how do we help middle-class families, how do we help those lower-income individuals and parents? You know, the refundable portion is a game changer for that,” Britt said.

Their bill also includes a proposal that would allow families to put more money into pre-tax savings accounts for child care.

The package also focuses on child care providers by launching a new grant program that Britt and Kaine said they hope will grow and keep workers from leaving the child care workforce for higher-paying jobs.

The median pay for child care workers in the U.S. in 2023 was $30,370 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.

The senators said they are hopeful their proposal will get the support it needs to clear the Senate, especially as lawmakers turn their attention toward tax policy in 2025, when many of the tax cuts implemented in 2025 are set to expire.

In early conversations with colleagues, the senators said they are confident their bills will attract additional co-sponsors.

“I think the time is right. I think people are hearing this when they go back home,” Britt said.

Child tax credit debate heats up on the Hill

While Britt and Kaine remain optimistic about a path forward for their package and bipartisanship around some issues concerning child tax policy, it has been somewhat hard to come by on Capitol Hill in recent years. It’s become even more polarizing in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

The proposal from Britt and Kaine is separate from the much-discussed child tax credit modifications, which will face a critical vote in the Senate later this week.

The Senate is expected to vote on Thursday on a separate tax reform proposal that, among other things, would expand the accessible refund of the child tax credit, as well as new tax policies for businesses. That legislation is almost certain to fail at the hands of the majority of Republicans, who say it makes too many concessions to Democrats.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has all but conceded that the bill will go down on Thursday, but he said he’s bringing it up to put Republicans on the record, in part because of recent comments from former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate JD Vance.

Vance has garnered plenty of media attention lately for previous public comments about childless people in America. But it was his comments during a Fox News interview on Sunday, during which Vance suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris opposed the child tax credit, that Schumer seemed to be referencing on the Senate floor Tuesday.

“This is plain old nonsense. Democrats do not oppose the child tax credit whatsoever. On the contrary, we strongly support it. We authored it and put it together back in 2021. The child tax credit expansion is one of the most significant achievements Democrats have done under the Biden-Harris Administration,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Here is the truth: Democrats want to pass the tax package, because it will help lift more kids out of poverty with another expansion of the child tax credit.”