Kaine wants to extend American Rescue Plan child care funding by another year

Oct. 31—U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., wants to extend federal funding by another year for child care providers.

Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is supporting a draft domestic supplemental funding bill that extends American Rescue Plan funding for child care programs by another year.

The proposed legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate in response to the recent expiration of child care funding from the American Rescue Plan that helped child care providers keep their doors open.

The legislation sought by Kaine would replenish for a full year the child care program funding that expired on September 30.

Kaine said a new report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission also found that child care is unaffordable for the majority of Virginia families.

"The child care crisis is a five alarm fire that is holding our families and economy back," Kaine said Thursday. "I continue to hear from parents across Virginia about how difficult it is to find high-quality, affordable child care, and from providers about how their wages make it hard for them to stay in the industry. If we want to build on our economic progress — particularly at a time when unemployment is low and companies are struggling to hire enough workers — we have to address this issue head on so parents can enter the workforce."

Kaine is urging his fellow senators — both Democrats and Republicans — to support the bill.

While the Senate works to pass government funding bills, Kaine said the domestic supplemental package would help ensure that Congress can allocate resources to meet other urgent needs facing families, including child care.

In addition to providing $16 billion in funding for child care, the domestic supplemental bill also includes $6 billion to expand access to broadband through the Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps low-income Americans access internet service.

Kaine on Thursday also called upon the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to respond to rising cases of antisemitism and Islamophobia in America, particularly in the aftermath of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

In a letter to the FBI and the DHS, Kaine expressed support for boosting funding to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to protect non-profit institutions, including places of worship, from violence, and for an unclassified briefing for members of Congress regarding the current threat assessment, interagency coordination efforts and preparedness measures that the DHS and FBI have put in place to respond to domestic acts of violence.

"At a volatile time in the Middle East, too many are taking out their understandable frustrations with events abroad on their neighbors here at home," Kaine said. "This causes people to live in fear and also weakens the example we send to the world that religious pluralism works."

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com