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NWLC Applauds Senate Appropriators’ Bipartisan Vote to Increase Child Care & Early Learning Funding for FY2025
Washington, DC — The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) released a statement after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act (LHHS), which included an increase in funding for child care.
The Senate’s FY2025 LHHS appropriations bill, led by Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), and Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME), would increase child care and early learning funding by $2.3 billion over FY2024 levels. This increase in funding would help more families across the country access and afford the child care that they need and help bolster the early care and education workforce.
Specifically, the FY2025 funding bill that passed through Committee includes:
- $10.35 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)—a $1.6 billion or 18% increase over fiscal year 2024—which will help more families across the country find and afford the child care they need; and
- $12.97 billion for Head Start, a $700 million increase over fiscal year 2024, which will support Head Start teachers and staff as local programs face ongoing staffing challenges; and
- $80 million for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS), a $5 million increase over fiscal year 2024, which will help provide low-income parents in post-secondary education with access to child care support on campus.
The following statement is from Whitney Pesek, Senior Director of Federal Child Care Policy for the National Women’s Law Center:
“Across the country, families are struggling to find and afford child care, while early educators are being paid poverty-level wages. Families and early educators cannot afford for Congress to delay any longer in addressing this urgent crisis. We are grateful to Subcommittee Chair Baldwin, Chair Murray, and Vice Chair Collins, for their bipartisan leadership, which has resulted in proposed significant increases in annual child care and early learning funding that would make a real difference for families and educators. We look forward to working with Congress to get this early education funding over the finish line.
“We continue to urge Congress to pass emergency supplemental funding for child care and early learning to stave off the impacts of the American Rescue Plan Act funding expiration. We also urge the House Appropriations Committee to follow the Senate’s lead in boosting funding for child care programs that are essential to the well-being of both our families and our economy.”
The Senate’s version of the LHHS appropriations bill provided far more funding for child care than the version that was approved along party lines by the House Appropriations Committee last month. The House bill included an additional $25 million for CCDBG and Head Start, compared to the additional $1.6 billion and $700 million respectively that was included in the Senate version, and eliminated the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program.
The next step in the process is for the House and the Senate to reach an agreement on the FY2025 funding levels for these programs.
