Child Care Issues in the 108th Congress (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Dec. 17, 2004 |
| Report Number |
RL31817 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Melinda Gish, Domestic Social Policy Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
The 108th Congress inherited several child care-related agenda items from the previous
Congress,
including tasks of providing FY2003 appropriations for many child care-related programs and the
reauthorization of both the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and the welfare
block grant (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The appropriations task was
completed, whereas the issue of reauthorizing CCDBG and TANF will again spill over, into the
hands of the 109th Congress.
FY2003 appropriations were provided in the form of the Consolidated Appropriations
Resolution 2003, signed into law ( P.L. 108-7 ) on February 20, 2003. Among other funding, the law
included $2.1 billion in discretionary funds for the CCDBG and $6.668 billion for Head Start.
Mandatory child care funding and TANF block grant funding (both of which expired at the end of
FY2002) have been provided at the FY2002 level via a series of temporary extensions, as the
programs await reauthorization. The 109th Congress will confront an additional extension if
reauthorization legislation is not passed before March 31, 2005.
Two weeks prior to the signing of the FY2003 appropriations law, the Administration released
its budget request for FY2004. It proposed to maintain level funding for the CCDBG, TANF, and
the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), while providing increases for Head Start, Early Reading
First, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants for infants and families. The
FY2004 budget requested cuts in funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers and
Even Start.
The President's FY2004 budget also included proposals to transfer the Head Start
program from
HHS to the Department of Education, and to offer states the opportunity to administer the Head Start
program, both in the context of the program's anticipated reauthorization, which, like that
of
CCDBG and TANF, did not occur during the 108th Congress. The House-passed reauthorization
bill
( H.R. 2210 ) did not include the transfer proposal, but it did propose an eight-state
demonstration program. The Senate HELP committee-reported bill ( S. 1940 ) contained
neither the transfer nor the state demonstration proposals, and differed markedly from the
House-passed bill. A Strategic Teacher Education Program and a national reporting system for
assessing Head Start programs' effectiveness with respect to promoting school readiness
were
implemented without legislative action.
The FY2004 appropriations bill was not signed into law ( P.L. 108-199 ) until 10 days before the
President's FY2005 budget was released. FY2004 appropriations generally maintained the
prior
year's funding, with Head Start and Early Reading First receiving increases. For FY2005,
the
President requested level funding for the CCDBG, SSBG, 21stCCLC and IDEA preschool; increases
for Head Start, Early Reading First, and IDEA infants and families; and no funding for the Early
Learning Fund and Even Start. Final FY2005 appropriations mirrored only a portion of the proposed
increases, and did not eliminate the latter two programs.
