Modernizing Financing of Early Care and Education in America Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3943 To establish a commission to make recommendations for modernizing Federal financing of early care and education programs. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 16, 2021 Mr. OWENS (for himself and Mr. ESTES) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi- sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To establish a commission to make recommendations for modernizing Federal financing of early care and edu- cation programs. 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 ‘‘Modernizing Financing 4 of Early Care and Education in America Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3943 IH SEC. 2. MODERNIZING FINANCING OF EARLY CARE AND 1 EDUCATION IN AMERICA. 2 (a) PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES.—The purpose of this 3 section is to establish a commission to make recommenda- 4 tions for modernizing Federal financing of early care and 5 education programs in order to promote— 6 (1) access to high quality child care and early 7 education settings that support healthy development 8 and well-being of young children; 9 (2) affordability of high quality early learning 10 and education opportunities for children living in 11 poverty and in disadvantaged communities; 12 (3) parent choice and flexibility that respects 13 the role parents play in choosing child care that is 14 best suited to fit their child’s needs; and 15 (4) a more streamlined, equitable, and sustain- 16 able Federal financing framework to support the 17 success of future generations. 18 (b) BIPARTISAN COMMISSION ON EARLY CHILDHOOD 19 EDUCATION FINANCING.— 20 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a 21 commission to be known as the Bipartisan Commis- 22 sion on Early Childhood Education Financing (in 23 this subsection referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 24 (2) MEMBERSHIP.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3943 IH (A) QUALIFICATIONS.—The Commission 1 members shall be knowledgeable in federally 2 and state-funded early care and education pro- 3 grams, including individuals representing State 4 and local governments and organizations knowl- 5 edgeable in public regulatory and funding mech- 6 anisms for early care and education programs, 7 and shall be balanced by area of expertise and 8 balanced geographically to the extent consistent 9 with maintaining the highest level of expertise 10 on the Commission. 11 (B) NUMBER; APPOINTMENT.—The Com- 12 mission shall be composed of 12 members ap- 13 pointed, within 90 days after the effective date 14 of this Act, from among individuals who meet 15 the requirements of subparagraph (A), as fol- 16 lows: 17 (i) 1 member shall be appointed by 18 the Majority Leader of the Senate. 19 (ii) 1 member shall be appointed by 20 the Minority Leader of the Senate. 21 (iii) 1 member shall be appointed by 22 the Speaker of the House of Representa- 23 tives. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3943 IH (iv) 1 member shall be appointed by 1 the Minority Leader of the House of Rep- 2 resentatives. 3 (v) 1 member shall be appointed by 4 the Chairman of the Committee on Fi- 5 nance of the Senate. 6 (vi) 1 member shall be appointed by 7 the ranking minority member of the Com- 8 mittee on Finance of the Senate. 9 (vii) 1 member shall be appointed by 10 the Chairman of the Committee on Ways 11 and Means of the House of Representa- 12 tives. 13 (viii) 1 member shall be appointed by 14 the ranking minority member of the Com- 15 mittee on Ways and Means of the House 16 of Representatives. 17 (ix) 1 member shall be appointed by 18 the Chairman of the Committee on Health, 19 Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 20 Senate. 21 (x) 1 member shall be appointed by 22 the ranking minority member of the Com- 23 mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and 24 Pensions of the Senate. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jul 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3943 IH (xi) 1 member shall be appointed by 1 the Chairman of the Committee on Edu- 2 cation and Labor of the House of Rep- 3 resentatives. 4 (xii) 1 member shall be appointed by 5 the ranking minority member of the Com- 6 mittee on Education and Labor of the 7 House of Representatives. 8 (C) VACANCIES.—A vacancy on the Com- 9 mission shall be filled in the same manner in 10 which the vacating member was appointed. 11 (3) POWERS.—In carrying out the functions of 12 the Commission under this subsection, the Commis- 13 sion— 14 (A) may secure directly from any Federal 15 agency or department any information the 16 Commission deems necessary to carry out the 17 functions, and, on the request of the Commis- 18 sion, each such agency or department may co- 19 operate with the Commission and, to the extent 20 permitted by law, furnish the information to the 21 Commission; and 22 (B) may enter into contracts, subject to 23 the availability of appropriations, and employ 24 such staff experts and consultants as may be 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3943 IH necessary to carry out the duties of the Com- 1 mission, subject to section 3109 of title 5, 2 United States Code. 3 (4) STAFF.—The Commission may, without re- 4 gard to the civil service laws and regulations, ap- 5 point and terminate an Executive Director and such 6 other additional personnel as may be necessary for 7 the Commission to perform the duties of the Com- 8 mission. The Executive Director shall be com- 9 pensated at a rate not to exceed the rate payable for 10 Level V of the Executive Schedule under section 11 5136 of title 5, United States Code. The employ- 12 ment and termination of an Executive Director shall 13 be subject to confirmation by a majority of the mem- 14 bers of the Commission. 15 (5) MEETINGS.— 16 (A) IN GENERAL.—All meetings of the 17 Commission shall be open to the public. The 18 Commission shall permit interested persons to 19 appear at Commission meetings and present 20 oral or written statements on the subject matter 21 of the meeting. 22 (B) ADVANCE PUBLIC NOTICE.—The Com- 23 mission shall provide timely notice, in advance, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 3943 IH in the Federal Register, of the time, place, and 1 subject of each Commission meeting. 2 (C) DOCUMENTATION.—The Commission 3 shall keep minutes of each Commission meet- 4 ing, which shall contain a record of the people 5 present, a description of the discussion that oc- 6 curred, and copies of all statements filed. Sub- 7 ject to section 552 of title 5, United States 8 Code, the minutes and records of all meetings 9 and other documents that were made available 10 to, or prepared for, the Commission shall be 11 available for public inspection and copying at a 12 single location in the offices of the Commission. 13 (D) INITIAL MEETING.—The Commission 14 shall hold its first meeting within 30 days after 15 all Commission members are appointed. 16 (6) REPORT.— 17 (A) IN GENERAL.—Within 18 months after 18 the date of the enactment of this subsection, 19 the Commission shall prepare a report of its 20 findings and recommendations regarding mod- 21 ernizing Federal financing of early care and 22 education programs to streamline and reduce 23 duplicate funding streams. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 3943 IH (B) CONTENTS.—The report required by 1 subparagraph (A) shall include the following: 2 (i) An inventory and accounting of the 3 total amount of Federal funds available for 4 early care and education programs, includ- 5 ing— 6 (I) programs under the Child 7 Care and Development Block Grant 8 Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858 et seq.); 9 (II) the child care stabilization 10 grant program under section 2202 of 11 the American Rescue Plan Act of 12 2021 (42 U.S.C. 9858 note); 13 (III) the child care entitlement 14 program under section 418 of the So- 15 cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 618); 16 (IV) programs under the Head 17 Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9801 et seq.); 18 (V) the program of block grants 19 to States for temporary assistance for 20 needy families under part A of title IV 21 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 22 601–619); 23 (VI) the Preschool Development 24 Grants program under section 9212 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jul 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 3943 IH of the Every Student Succeeds Act 1 (42 U.S.C. 9831 note); 2 (VII) the Child Care Access 3 Means Parents in School program 4 under section 419N of the Higher 5 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6 1070e); and 7 (VIII) and any other early care 8 or education program identified by the 9 Commission. 10 (ii) A comprehensive review and as- 11 sessment of the funding structure and allo- 12 cation formula used to finance each pro- 13 gram referred to in clause (i), including a 14 bifurcation of programs indicating whether 15 Federal funds are provided directly to 16 States or to other grantees, and how that 17 affects the coordination of programs at the 18 State and local levels and the delivery of 19 services to families. 20 (iii) A description of congressional ju- 21 risdiction over, and Federal agency admin- 22 istration of, each such program. 23 (iv) An explanation of how each such 24 program interacts with State and local 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 3943 IH public funding and financing for early care 1 and education, including publicly-funded 2 pre-kindergarten, which shall include an 3 accounting of the total amount of State 4 and local funds available for such pur- 5 poses. 6 (v) An identification of barriers in the 7 governance and funding structures of pro- 8 grams that limit the most efficient use of 9 local, State, and Federal resources. 10 (C) MATTERS REQUIRED TO BE AD- 11 DRESSED IN THE REPORT TO THE CONGRESS.— 12 In the report to the Congress, the Commission 13 shall make specific recommendations, including 14 delineation of specific statutory and regulatory 15 changes, to address each of the following: 16 (i) How to modernize and more effec- 17 tively use Federal funds to strengthen the 18 delivery of child care and early education, 19 and improve the financing framework and 20 governance structure at the Federal level 21 to improve access for families and account- 22 ability for taxpayer dollars. 23 (ii) The pros and cons of streamlining 24 or combining Federal programs and fund- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 3943 IH ing streams in order to improve the overall 1 participation of children in a mixed deliv- 2 ery system, while maintaining availability 3 of high quality services, expanding parental 4 choice, and enhancing access for children 5 from low-income communities. 6 (iii) Options for Federal alternative fi- 7 nancing framework or governance models 8 that better leverage the Federal investment 9 in child care and early education funding, 10 including ideas that are outside the current 11 framework or that re-envision existing pro- 12 grams. 13 (iv) Options for expanding the use of 14 public and private partnerships to help 15 maximize the Federal investment in early 16 care and education. 17 (D) DISTRIBUTION.—The Commission 18 shall make the report publicly available, and 19 shall submit a copy of the report to the Chair- 20 man and ranking minority member of each of 21 the Committees on Finance and on Health, 22 Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, 23 and the Committees on Ways and Means and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Jul 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 3943 IH on Education and Labor of the House of Rep- 1 resentatives, and to the President. 2 (7) TERMINATION.—The Commission shall ter- 3 minate 60 days after the Commission submits the 4 report required by paragraph (6). 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:31 Jul 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3943.IH H3943 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS