News Update

Biden’s budget plan aims to boost childcare funding by billions

President Biden’s 2024 budget plan aims to boost childcare and early childhood education funding by billions of dollars, as Reuters reported.

The proposal, which Biden will deliver to Congress today, revisits key items from the president’s 2023 budget proposal that were later removed during negotiations with Congress. However, prospects may well be even slimmer this year, as Reuters noted, given the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

The White House argues that lack of access to childcare is a key factor depressing women’s participation in the workforce, citing a forecast that the country’s economic output could drop by $290 billion a year beginning in 2030 if the childcare crisis persists.

Administration officials said Biden would continue to push for more spending on the nation’s “care economy,” but could also take executive action to forward his agenda, such as last week’s announcement that microchip firms seeking funds from a $52 billion U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and research program have to include plans for childcare.

Biden’s 2024 proposal includes $22.1 billion for existing early care and education programs, up 10.5% from the 2023 level, including $9 billion for federal block grants. This higher level of funding, roughly $400 billion over 10 years, would increase childcare options for 16 million more young children while reducing costs for parents, according to the White House. Biden’s budget is expected to include free preschool for all 4-year-olds as well as an expanded child tax credit.