On Monday, May 16th, 2022, Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) officially announced their revamped child care and early learning reconciliation proposal. As we wrote last week, this proposal is roughly half the size of the original child care proposal in Build Back Better and largely focuses on expanding funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), changes meant to address the concerns raised by Senator Manchin (D-WV) and others.
Several reports were released this week supporting the new child care proposal. Notably, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) published a fact sheet that estimates that more than one million children could benefit from the new proposal. It also included a state-by-state analysis of the proposed funding.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also released an analysis that noted that although this proposal is significantly smaller than the House-passed BBB proposal, it would make child care more affordable for families, allow communities to build on progress made with COVID relief funds, and would not increase inflation.