On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) joined colleagues to introduce legislation aimed at reducing the cost of child care by providing working parents with tax credits.
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act, also sponsored by Casey, and U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, would permanently expand the child care tax credits initially passed as part of the American Rescue Plan. Casey was instrumental in securing the expansion that increased the average family’s credit from $593 to $2,158. The proposed legislation would increase the max credit to $4,000 per child to keep pace with inflation, and expands the eligibility for the tax credit to low-income families.
“We must do everything in our power to put affordable child care within reach for every family, as we did when we expanded tax credits to help families pay for child care in 2021. Child care costs were too high for too many families well before the pandemic and that problem isn’t going away unless we take action to lower costs,” Casey said. “It’s long past time to step up and make the child care tax credit available to everyone at the actual cost of child care today.”
The legislation also phases out the tax credit for families making more than $400,000 a year, and ensures low-income families can benefit from the tax credit by making it refundable. The bill would allow families to receive up to $8,000 each.
Other sponsors to the bill include U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Angus King (D-ME), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Brian Schatz (D-HI).
The bill is also endorsed by the National Women’s Law Center, Child Care Aware, Save the Children, First Focus, Campaign for Children, First Five Years Fund, Moms Rising, NAEYC, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), ROC United, Zero to Three, PA Partnerships for Children, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), KinderCare, and the Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC).