“A bill to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, to improve access to relative caregivers, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section authorizes appropriations of $14 billion for each of FY2026 through 2031 under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDBG) (previously authorized at $2.36 billion for FY2015, increasing annually to $2.75 billion for FY2020). (The CCDBG provides formula block grants to states, territories, and tribes to subsidize child care for low-income working families and improve child care quality.) The section further revises state plan assurances under the CCDBG to (1) require parents to be offered child care certificates (i.e., flexible payments redeemable with chosen providers) and mandate that all direct services be provided via such certificates; (2) exempt in-home child care providers and relative caregivers from specified health, safety, licensing, and quality requirements; (3) increase the minimum share of block grant funds for state direct services via certificates to 90% (from 70%); (4) protect assistance for working parents and require continuation for at least six months after an unmarried parent's marriage causes family income to exceed state eligibility limits; (5) set relative caregiver payment rates at not less than 75% of family child care provider rates for children of the same age in the same location; and (6) require states to notify parents annually that certificates may be used for relative caregivers (e.g., grandparents, adult siblings, aunts, uncles) or married parents acting as caregivers and to review relative caregiver regulations every five years to eliminate unnecessary burdens. (Thus, the changes promote parental choice, relative care, and voucher-based delivery while clarifying states need not use grants or contracts for direct services.) The section also amends a limitations provision heading from "Sectarian" to "Religious."
This section repeals the child and dependent care tax credit under section 21 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), which provides a nonrefundable credit of up to 35% of qualifying employment-related expenses (capped at $3,000 for one qualifying individual or $6,000 for two or more). It makes conforming amendments to other IRC sections—including sections 23 (adoption credit), 35 (health insurance credit), 129 (employer-provided dependent care assistance exclusion), 213 (medical expense deduction), and 6213 (math error procedures)—to eliminate cross-references to section 21, relocate and expand the definition of employment-related expenses to section 129 (preserving the $5,000 income exclusion for employer-provided dependent care assistance), and apply section 21's marital status rules to those provisions. The amendments apply to taxable years beginning after the date of enactment.