BREAKING NEWS – ECONOMIC STIMULUS UPDATE

The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies just released this update.

Senate Passes Bill, Heading to Quick Conference!
On Tuesday, the Senate passed its version of the economic stimulus legislation, “the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”. The measure now goes to a joint House-Senate conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions. The conference meetings are likely to happen very quickly and it is possible that a final conference agreement could be reached (and passed) by this Friday, February 13. Your help is needed to ensure that this crucial funding for child care remains in the bill.

Although both the House and Senate passed stimulus bills include $2 billion for child care, conferees will be under great pressure to find further reductions in spending. The Senate passed measure eliminated a number of popular provisions: an increase of $14 billion for K-12 school construction, an increase of $6 billion for higher education facilities construction, an increase of $900 million for Pandemic flu preparedness, and health insurance for the unemployed. Other provisions in the Senate passed measure shaved back spending increases on many popular programs. At the same time, the Senate bill funded initiatives not included in the House bill such as suspending taxation of unemployment benefits, which would be helpful to families during the recession. Therefore, the conferees have many decisions to make and nothing should be taken for granted. It is very much a zero-sum approach at this point, so if some funding is to be restored, other funding has to either cutback or eliminated.

Below is a chart showing the differences in funding amounts in the House and Senate bills. In addition, language in the Senate bill for CCBDG funding is targeted for quality improvements. It is vital that this language be included in the final conference agreement to ensure that children are in safe, stable care.

Early Childhood Development Highlights in the House and Senate Bills
($ in Millions)

Program

Child Care & Development Block Grant* - House Mark 2,000.00 Senate Mark 2,000.00

Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) - House Mark 0 Senate Mark 400

Head Start/Early Head Start - House Mark 2,100.00 Senate Mark 1,100.00

Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) - House Mark 1,000.00 Senate Mark 200

Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) - House Mark 631 Senate Mark 0

School Construction (K-12) - House Mark 14,000.00 Senate Mark 0

Special Education/Preschool Grants - House Mark 13,000.00 Senate Mark 13,000.00

Special Education/Part C - House Mark 600 Senate Mark 500

Pell Grants - House Mark 1,563.00 Senate Mark 13,869.00

*Of this amount, $255.2 million would be reserved for quality funding and of this quality set-aside $93.6 million would be targeted to improve infant and toddler care.