ACCESS Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1049 To amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to make projects that directly or indirectly increase the accessibility of child care eligible for certain grants, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 25, 2021 Ms. ERNST introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works A BILL To amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to make projects that directly or indirectly increase the accessibility of child care eligible for certain grants, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Affordable Child Care 4 for Economic Strategies and Success Act’’ or the ‘‘AC- 5 CESS Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Apr 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1049.IS S1049 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1049 IS SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC DE- 1 VELOPMENT. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 201 of the Public Works 3 and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141) 4 is amended— 5 (1) in subsection (a)— 6 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and’’ 7 after the semicolon at the end; 8 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking the pe- 9 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 10 (C) by adding at the end the following: 11 ‘‘(3) planning, developing, or creating a project 12 or facility that will directly or indirectly increase the 13 accessibility of child care.’’; and 14 (2) in subsection (b)(1)— 15 (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘or’’ 16 at the end; 17 (B) in subparagraph (C), by adding ‘‘or’’ 18 after the semicolon at the end; and 19 (C) by adding at the end the following: 20 ‘‘(D) increase the accessibility of child 21 care;’’. 22 (b) REGULATIONS.— 23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 24 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec- 25 retary of Commerce, in consultation with the Sec- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Apr 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1049.IS S1049 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1049 IS retary of Health and Human Services, shall issue 1 such regulations as are necessary to establish cri- 2 teria for whether, for purposes of section 201 of the 3 Public Works and Economic Development Act of 4 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141), a project directly or indi- 5 rectly increases the accessibility of child care. 6 (2) CONSIDERATIONS.—The criteria referred to 7 in paragraph (1) shall take into consideration the 8 following: 9 (A) The availability, validity, and accessi- 10 bility of timely data. 11 (B) The extent to which a project contrib- 12 utes to the financial security of a family. 13 (C) The extent to which a project address- 14 es child care needs in areas recognized as expe- 15 riencing a child care shortage. 16 SEC. 3. GRANTS FOR PLANNING AND GRANTS FOR ADMIN- 17 ISTRATIVE EXPENSES. 18 Section 203(b) of the Public Works and Economic 19 Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3143(b)) is amended 20 by striking paragraph (4) and inserting the following: 21 ‘‘(4) formulating and implementing an economic 22 development program that includes systematic ef- 23 forts— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Apr 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1049.IS S1049 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1049 IS ‘‘(A) to reduce unemployment and increase 1 incomes; or 2 ‘‘(B) to increase the accessibility of child 3 care.’’. 4 SEC. 4. GRANTS FOR TRAINING, RESEARCH, AND TECH- 5 NICAL ASSISTANCE. 6 Section 207(a)(2) of the Public Works and Economic 7 Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3147(a)(2)) is 8 amended— 9 (1) in subparagraph (H), by striking ‘‘and’’ 10 after the semicolon at the end; 11 (2) by redesignating subparagraph (I) as sub- 12 paragraph (J); and 13 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (H) the fol- 14 lowing: 15 ‘‘(I) the planning, development, or creation 16 of a project or facility that will directly or indi- 17 rectly increase the accessibility of child care; 18 and’’. 19 SEC. 5. COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 20 STRATEGIES. 21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 302(a)(3)(A) of the Pub- 22 lic Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 23 U.S.C. 3162(a)(3)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(includ- 24 ing by directly or indirectly increasing the accessibility of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Apr 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1049.IS S1049 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1049 IS child care)’’ after ‘‘promotes economic development and 1 opportunity’’. 2 (b) GUIDANCE.—In carrying out the amendment 3 made by subsection (a), the Secretary of Commerce, in 4 consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human 5 Services, shall issue guidance on how to include the acces- 6 sibility of child care in a comprehensive economic develop- 7 ment strategy developed under section 302 of the Public 8 Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 9 U.S.C. 3162). 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:09 Apr 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1049.IS S1049 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS