Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) was among a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders who negotiated a legislative agreement to improve and reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act on Friday.
Also negotiated by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), along with Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), John Kline (R-Minn.) and David Loebsack (D-Iowa), the agreement will enhance transparency, strengthen health and safety protections, and improve the quality of child care.
The act provides funds to states to help low-income families pay for child care while a parent works or is in an educational or job training program. The law has not been reauthorized since 1996. Friday’s agreement is based upon legislation introduced in 2013 by Sens. Mikulski and Burr that passed the Senate earlier this year.
“Over three years ago Sen. Barbara Mikulski and I made a commitment to reauthorizing the Child Care and Development Block Grant program so that kids could have safer environments in which to stay while their parents worked and taxpayers did not continue to subsidize providers who created unsafe settings… . It has been a long time coming, but I’m proud we have reached this point,” Burr said.