Child care is one of the largest expenses most families with young children face. It can easily cost more than in-state college tuition or the average rent, leaving millions of working families struggling to afford the quality care they need. And without it, many parents are forced to miss work or exit the workforce entirely, leaving families financially unstable, employers scrambling to fill jobs, and young children missing opportunities to learn and grow.
The Promoting Affordable Childcare for Everyone Act (H.R. 7360 ) would help. Introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), this bipartisan bill would fine-tune existing provisions in the U.S. tax code to help more families afford child care. It would do this by:
—Enhancing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) by making the credit fully refundable so that it reaches more low- and middle-income working families; indexing the credit to inflation to ensure it matches rising costs of child care into the future, and raising the credit rate so that families will see more money back in their pockets.
—Expanding the Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP) by increasing the amount of pre-tax dollars families can put into a child care assistance plan (similar to a Flexible Spending Account) from $5,000 to $7,500.
The policies in the PACE Act are popular with voters and its goal of modernizing the tax code to help families afford child care is popular with lawmakers. Please support it! Thanks.
First sent on April 16, 2024 by Jess Craven
