Biden signs executive order trying to make child care more accessible

Amid the ongoing child care crisis, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to make child care cheaper and more accessible, as the New York Times reported, seeking to make headway on a promise he made when he took office.

White House officials described it as the most sweeping effort by any president to streamline the delivery of child care.

“The child care and long-term care systems in this country just don’t work well,” said Susan E. Rice, the director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, as the New York Times reported. “The order includes more than 50 directives to nearly every agency to take action on fixing our child care and long-term care system.”

Rice said the order would direct some agencies to lower co-pays for services. Other provisions will seek to make Medicare and Medicaid dollars go further. 

However, the order does not deliver on the goal Biden identified at the start of his presidency, when he proposed $225 billion to fully cover child care for low-income Americans and an additional $200 billion for universal preschool. Those proposals failed to win support in Congress, and Biden abandoned them in favor of other issues. Now, as the president prepares to announce his re-election campaign, he is seeking to make progress on unmet promises.