Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Salud Carbajal joined a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in voting to pass H.R. 7027, the Child Care is Essential Act and H.R. 7327, the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act.

COVID-19 has devastated the child care sector, forcing providers to close and exacerbating the existing shortage of affordable child care options for families. Without adequate support from the federal government, California is set to lose 419,708 child care slots, which represents 51% of our current child care supply. In conjunction, the two bills passed today will provide child care providers with the funding they need to reopen under CDC safety guidelines, keep child care workers on payroll through tax credits, and offer tuition and copayment relief for struggling families.

“Parents cannot return to work without access to quality, affordable child care. In order to come out of this pandemic with a strong economy that works for everyone, we need to make sure child care providers can safely reopen and then stay open,” said Rep. Carbajal. “The Child Care is Essential Act and the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act invest in the struggling child care sector to help parents get back to work, keep child care workers employed, and most importantly, ensure our children stay safe and healthy as we work to safely reopen and rebuild our economy.”

The Child Care is Essential Act:

• Provides grants for child care providers to use on personnel costs, sanitation and cleaning, training, and other goods and services needed to maintain or resume operation.
• Makes retaining child care workers on payroll at the same compensation level as prior to COVID-19 a condition to receive stabilization grants.
• Relieves working families of the cost of tuition and copayments if the child care provider received federal grants.
• Require child care providers to comply with public health guidance to promote health and safety.

A summary of the Child Care Is Essential Act is available here.

The Child Care for Economic Recovery Act:

• Enhances the child and dependent care tax credit by making it refundable, which will allow low and middle income families to claim this credit for the first time.
• Families with one child would be eligible for a credit of up to $3,000
• Families with more than one child would be eligible for a credit of up to $6,000
• Credit phases down for families earning more than $120,000
• Establishes a 30% refundable payroll tax credit for employee dependent care benefits paid by employers.
• Establishes a 50% refundable payroll tax credit for child care providers to use to stay afloat.
• Expands the employee retention tax credit to incentivize employers to keep their child care workers on payroll.
• Provides $850 million to states in order to fill in gaps in dependent care for essential workers during this pandemic.

A summary of the Child Care For Economic Recovery Act is here.

Rep. Salud Carbajal represents California’s 24th Congressional District that includes San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and part of Ventura counties.

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