EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Banks Introduces Bill to Give Parents Greater Freedom in Child Care Choices

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced a bill to give parents more power over their child care decisions.

The Respect Parents’ Childcare Choices Act reforms a federal child care funding grant to better align it with the needs of families, according to Banks. The Indiana Republican says he wants to let parents decide how their children are cared for and wants to ensure that the grant program’s vouchers support the full range of caregiving options.

“The Biden administration’s burdensome overregulation increased the cost of child care and withheld funding from the child care arrangements many families prefer,” Banks told The Daily Signal in a statement. “Big government never works. The Respect Parents’ Childcare Choices Act puts families first and gives parents the freedom to choose what works best for them.”

The Child Care and Development Block Grant comprises $18 billion in grants to provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribal groups to help low-income and working-class families afford child care. States use the funds to provide working parents with vouchers to pay for child care at approved providers.

Banks’ bill allows vouchers to be used to pay relatives for child care. It would exempt relative caregivers and in-home child care providers from some of the grant program’s requirements and licensing standards.

The bill also requires states to annually notify parents receiving child care vouchers that they can use those vouchers to pay for care by relatives.

Married parents would also be allowed to use the vouchers directly if one parent stays at home and provides child care while the other is working, rather than being required to use the vouchers to pay for a third-party child care provider.

The grant program currently disqualifies many single parents from assistance if they get married. The bill would reform the eligibility criteria to eliminate such marriage penalties.

Banks says he also wants to protect religious child care providers by ensuring religious day care centers won’t lose federal funding for living out their faith.

Only 14% of eligible families actually receive subsidized child care under the grant system due to a lack of funding. To allow more families to receive assistance, this bill would increase the annual authorized funding for the block grant by $5.25 billion.

The bill would also eliminate the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, a program with an annual tax expenditure of $5.3 billion, which Banks says ignores informal child care arrangements and primarily benefits upper-class families.