Child Care Reauthorization: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Child Care Provisions in House and Senate Versions of H.R. 4, S. 880, and Current Law (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Jan. 3, 2005 |
| Report Number |
RL32241 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Melinda Gish, Domestic Social Policy Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The 108th Congress did not complete action to reauthorize child care legislation that expired at
the
end of FY2002, but funding has continued via a series of temporary measures, and annual
appropriations. "Child care reauthorization" is composed of two parts: legislation to reauthorize the
Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act and legislation to extend mandatory
funding appropriated under Section 418 of the Social Security Act.
In February 2003, the House passed a consolidated bill, H.R. 4 , which
encompassed both parts of reauthorization by including provisions that would have addressed
mandatory appropriations, discretionary funding authorization levels, and other amendments to the
CCDBG Act. The Senate Finance Committee reported its own version of H.R. 4, which
included mandatory child care funding, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
(HELP) Committee reported a separate bill, S. 880 , which included all provisions
pertaining to discretionary funding authorization, and amended the CCDBG Act itself. The full
Senate began consideration of H.R. 4 on March 29, 2004, passing one amendment to
it (to increase child care funding), but then failed to resume consideration of the bill.
Both versions of H.R. 4 originally proposed to appropriate $2.917 billion in
mandatory CCDBG funding for each of fiscal years 2004 through 2008, which would have reflected
an increase of $1 billion over five years above current (FY2002) funding. (The amendment approved
on the Senate floor would have provided an additional $6 billion, on top of the $1 billion.)
Discretionary funding levels are authorized within the CCDBG Act, and both the House
version of
H.R. 4 and S. 880 proposed to authorize $2.3 billion in FY2004, rising up to
$3.1 billion in FY2008. Also of note, H.R. 4 (House) would have allowed states to transfer up
to 50% of their TANF block grants to the CCDBG (rather than current law's limit of 30%).
Both H.R. 4 (House) and S. 880 would have revised and expanded
the CCDBG program goals to include and emphasize school readiness. Of the two bills, S.
880 provided the greater detail in terms of defining the skills and development to be
fostered in efforts to prepare children for school. Both bills included provisions to increase the
minimum quality set-aside from 4% to 6%, and to define "quality activities" in more detail.
Both bills proposed to eliminate the federal eligibility ceiling (85% of state median income);
and to place new requirements on state plans to emphasize coordination, consumer education, and
program quality. S. 880 would have also strengthened requirements (currently only in
regulation) that states set provider payment rates in accordance with a recent market rate survey.
Other provisions in S. 880 included amending the list of data elements collected on a
monthly basis; enhancing security at federal child care facilities, and establishing a small business
child care grant program. This report provides a side-by-side comparison of the proposed bills, and
will not be updated.
