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Demetrius Freeman

The Biden administration asked Congress for $16 billion in child-care funding on Wednesday, part of its push to keep the expiration of covid aid from upending essential services for millions of families.

The funds account for about one-third of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/10/24/white-house-domestic-supplemental-spending/" target=_blank>roughly $56 billion</a> the White House is seeking for domestic needs, including high-speed internet access and natural-disaster relief. It comes on the heels of a separate $106 billion request for international priorities, including funding for Ukraine and Israel.

Biden preps $50 billion for domestic crises on top of Israel, Ukraine aid

The White House is also asking Congress to approve $23 billion in disaster relief, including for the wildfires that struck Hawaii and floods in California and Vermont; $6 billion to extend internet access for millions of low-income households; and billions more for communications infrastructure and energy needs, as well as money to counter fentanyl and prevent firefighters battling wildfires from seeing their pay cut.

“Additional resources are needed to meet the needs of the American people, support our communities, and protect our nation and its interests,” the White House said in a statement.

The child-care funds, which would be distributed to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, would provide a year of stabilization funding for more than 225,000 child-care providers throughout the country. Many received similar allotments during the pandemic, when Congress set aside a record $24 billion to help keep child-care facilities open.

The last of those funds expired at the end of September, leaving many providers struggling to stay open. As many as 1 in 3 child-care centers could soon close, leaving some 3.2 million children without care, according to estimates from the Century Foundation, a liberal think tank. Some child-care providers say they’ve already had to lay off workers or raise fees to make up for the loss in federal funding, and many expect the situation to become even more dire in coming months.

“If we don’t act soon, a system that was already struggling to survive is on the verge of crashing to the ground,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Wednesday. “As we tackle national security priorities, we’ve also got to address the child-care crisis and other urgent domestic priorities.

Economists fear the erosion of child-care options could roll back recent gains in the workforce. Women — and working mothers in particular — have reentered the labor force at a rapid clip after the pandemic and have helped drive much of the economy’s recent momentum. Without care, many could be forced to be scale back at work or quit altogether.

Child care is about to get more expensive as federal funds dry up

“We all watched women get pushed out of the workforce,” Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters Wednesday. “They did not opt out of the workforce.”

Improving child care and making it more affordable has become a key priority for the Biden administration. White House officials say renewed funding would help preserve existing child-care slots while also providing financial help to families who rely on care to get to work. In April, the president signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to “do what they can … to boost the supply of high-quality early care.”

The $16 billion request from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">President Biden</a> matches what Democrats in Congress had called for last month. The funding would go directly to states and ranges from $15 million apiece for Wyoming and Vermont to $1.8 billion for Texas.

Gerald Loeb Award, Beat Reporting, 2021

Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism

Abha Bhattarai is the economics correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously covered retail for the publication.

Abha Bhattarai

New York State Associated Press Young Journalist of the Year

Cornell University, BA in history

Jeff Stein is the White House economics reporter for The Washington Post. He was a crime reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and, in 2014, founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York. He was also a reporter for Vox.

Jeff Stein

James Beard Award for Investigative Reporting,  finalist, 2023

Toner Prize for Excellence in National Reporting, finalist, 2021

Washington-Baltimore News Guild Headline Awards, first prize for sports reporting, 2020

Associated Press Sports Editors, first prize for breaking news, 2015

Associated Press Media Editors, first prize for sports feature writing, 2015

Missouri Press Association, first prize for business reporting, 2014

University of Missouri, BA in history

University of Missouri, BA in journalism

Jacob Bogage covers economic policy in Congress for The Washington Post, where he's worked since 2015. He previously covered business and technology and wrote for the Sports section.

Jacob Bogage

washpost

White House to ask Congress for $16 billion in child-care funding

the-washington-post

US President Joe Biden address the Nation. Ukraine Hamas, Israel

The Washington Post

name

prism://prism.query/site,/business/economy&limit=20

Economy

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