Readout of the White House States Convening on Child Care
Last week, White House officials welcomed leaders from 34 states across the country to discuss state actions to make child care more affordable for working families, increase child care provider supply, and improve job quality for child care workers.
This convening reaffirms the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to expanding access to child care. Last week, the Council of Economic Advisors released its new issue brief identifying how child care is foundational to the overall economy by demonstrating the connection between expanded access to child care and increased maternal labor force participation and business formation. This new analysis adds to earlier findings on how federal funding made possible by the American Rescue Plan lowered costs for working families and increased women’s labor force participation and underscores the need for additional investments in the child care sector as part of economic infrastructure.
The Biden-Harris Administration has demonstrated its commitment to supporting affordable care through direct investments—including tens of billions of dollars through the American Rescue Plan—and has proposed historic investments in child care in the President’s annual budgets. The President and Vice President have secured a 50% increase in child care funding over this Administration, resulting in child care subsidies supporting over a half million more children from low-income families. President Biden also signed the Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, which includes more than 50 directives to expand access to affordable, high-quality care and to support care workers and caregivers, and required companies applying for major grants from his CHIPS and Science Act to ensure affordable, high-quality care for their workers. Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, the Administration is lowering child care costs for more than 100,000 lower-income families by capping costs at no more than 7% of their income, saving families an average of $2,400 a year.
At the convening, state leaders talked about progress they have made since the 2023 White House convening including successes from the most recent legislative session and discussed next steps for further state action on child care, such as serving more working families, lowering costs, and supporting providers. Spurred by the historic actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken, states across the country have made significant investments in child care as part of their budgets, expanded income eligibility for child care subsidies, and increased provider payment rates. Administration officials also highlighted their call to states to invest at least 0.5% of federal highway formula funds, which total nearly $50 billion per year, to expand and diversify their construction workforces, including by providing child care and other supportive services. States can follow the examples of Maryland and Pennsylvania by investing highway funds in high-quality workforce approaches such as registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs and supportive services.
White House officials thanked state legislators for their leadership and dedication to this issue, and discussed the Biden-Harris Administration’s concrete support for continued federal and state action to improve child care access and affordability, worker and provider supports, and quality.
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