Providing Child Care for Police Officers Act of 2023

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2722 To establish a grant pilot program to provide child care services for the minor children of law enforcement officers to accommodate the shift work and abnormal work hours of such officers, and to enhance recruit- ment and retention of such officers. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 19, 2023 Mr. PETERS (for himself, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. HARDER of California, and Mr. ISSA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris- diction of the committee concerned A BILL To establish a grant pilot program to provide child care services for the minor children of law enforcement offi- cers to accommodate the shift work and abnormal work hours of such officers, and to enhance recruitment and retention of such officers. 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 ‘‘Providing Child Care 4 for Police Officers Act of 2023’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 2722 IH SEC. 2. CHILD CARE GRANT PROGRAM TO SUPPORT LAW 1 ENFORCEMENT. 2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Health and 3 Human Services shall establish a program to award grants 4 to States, on a competitive basis, to assist States in pro- 5 viding funds to encourage the establishment and operation 6 of child care programs to obtain child care services for 7 the minor children of law enforcement officers during the 8 shift work and abnormal work hours of such officers. 9 (b) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 10 under this section, a State shall prepare and submit to 11 the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, 12 and containing such information as the Secretary may re- 13 quire, including an assurance that the funds required 14 under subsection (e) will be provided. 15 (c) PERIOD OF GRANT.—The Secretary shall make 16 the grant for a period of 3 years. 17 (d) SET-ASIDE.—Of the amount appropriated to 18 carry out this Act for a fiscal year, not less than 20 per- 19 cent shall be used to make grants to eligible units of State 20 and local government that employ fewer than 200 full-time 21 law enforcement officers. 22 (e) USE OF FUNDS.— 23 (1) IN GENERAL.—A State shall use amounts 24 provided under a grant awarded under this section 25 to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies (or 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 2722 IH consortia formed in accordance with paragraph (3)) 1 located in the State to enable the small businesses 2 (or consortia) to establish and operate child care 3 programs. Such assistance may include— 4 (A) technical assistance in the establish- 5 ment of a child care program; 6 (B) assistance for the startup costs related 7 to a child care program; 8 (C) assistance for the training of child care 9 providers; 10 (D) scholarships for families; 11 (E) the provision of services to care for 12 sick children or to provide care to school-aged 13 children; 14 (F) the entering into of contracts with 15 local resource and referral organizations or local 16 health departments; 17 (G) assistance for care for children with 18 disabilities; 19 (H) assistance to maintain nonstandard 20 hours for expanded hours of child care; 21 (I) payment of expenses for construction, 22 renovation or operation of a child care facility, 23 notwithstanding section 658F(b) of the 24 CCDBG Act; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 2722 IH (J) assistance for any other relevant activ- 1 ity determined appropriate by the State. 2 (2) APPLICATION.—In order for a law enforce- 3 ment agency or consortium to be eligible to receive 4 assistance from a State under this section, the law 5 enforcement agency or unit of local government in- 6 volved shall prepare and submit to the State an ap- 7 plication at such time, in such manner, and con- 8 taining such information as the State may require. 9 (4) LIMITATIONS.—With respect to grant funds 10 received under this section, a State may not provide 11 in excess of $3,000,000 in assistance from such 12 funds to any single applicant. 13 (f) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—To be eligible to re- 14 ceive a grant under this section, a State shall provide as- 15 surances to the Secretary that, with respect to the costs 16 to be incurred by a covered entity receiving assistance in 17 carrying out activities under this section, the covered enti- 18 ty will make available (directly or through donations from 19 public or private entities) non-Federal contributions to 20 such costs in an amount equal to— 21 (1) for the first fiscal year in which the covered 22 entity receives such assistance, not less than 10 per- 23 cent of such costs; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 2722 IH (2) for the second fiscal year in which the cov- 1 ered entity receives such assistance, not less than 25 2 percent of such costs; and 3 (3) for the third fiscal year in which the covered 4 entity receives such assistance, not less than 332⁄3 5 percent of such costs. 6 (g) REQUIREMENTS OF PROVIDERS.—To be eligible 7 to receive assistance under a grant awarded under this 8 section, a child care provider— 9 (1) who receives assistance from a State shall 10 comply with all applicable State and local licensing 11 and regulatory requirements and all applicable 12 health and safety standards in effect in the State; 13 and 14 (2) who receives assistance from an Indian tribe 15 or tribal organization shall comply with all applica- 16 ble regulatory standards. 17 (h) ADMINISTRATION.— 18 (1) STATE RESPONSIBILITY.—A State shall 19 have responsibility for administering a grant award- 20 ed for the State under this section and for moni- 21 toring covered entities that receive assistance under 22 such grant. 23 (2) AUDITS.—A State shall require each cov- 24 ered entity receiving assistance under the grant 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 2722 IH awarded under this section to conduct an annual 1 audit with respect to the activities of the covered en- 2 tity. Such audits shall be submitted to the State. 3 (3) MISUSE OF FUNDS.— 4 (A) REPAYMENT.—If the State determines, 5 through an audit or otherwise, that a covered 6 entity receiving assistance under a grant award- 7 ed under this section has misused the assist- 8 ance, the State shall notify the Secretary of the 9 misuse. The Secretary, upon such a notifica- 10 tion, may seek from such a covered entity the 11 repayment of an amount equal to the amount 12 of any such misused assistance plus interest. 13 (B) APPEALS PROCESS.—The Secretary 14 shall by regulation provide for an appeals proc- 15 ess with respect to repayments under this para- 16 graph. 17 (i) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 18 (1) 2-YEAR STUDY.— 19 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years 20 after the date on which the Secretary first 21 awards grants under this section, the Secretary 22 shall conduct a study to determine— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 2722 IH (i) the capacity of covered entities to 1 meet the child care needs of communities 2 within States; 3 (ii) the kinds of consortia that are 4 being formed with respect to child care at 5 the local level to carry out programs fund- 6 ed under this section; and 7 (iii) who is using the programs funded 8 under this section and the income levels of 9 such individuals. 10 (B) REPORT.—Not later than 28 months 11 after the date on which the Secretary first 12 awards grants under this section, the Secretary 13 shall prepare and submit to the appropriate 14 committees of Congress a report on the results 15 of the study conducted in accordance with sub- 16 paragraph (A). 17 (2) 4-YEAR STUDY.— 18 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 4 years 19 after the date on which the Secretary first 20 awards grants under this section, the Secretary 21 shall conduct a study to determine the number 22 of child care facilities that are funded through 23 covered entities that received assistance through 24 a grant awarded under this section and that re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 2722 IH main in operation, and the extent to which such 1 facilities are meeting the child care needs of the 2 individuals served by such facilities. 3 (B) REPORT.—Not later than 52 months 4 after the date on which the Secretary first 5 awards grants under this section, the Secretary 6 shall prepare and submit to the appropriate 7 committees of Congress a report on the results 8 of the study conducted in accordance with sub- 9 paragraph (A). 10 (j) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 11 (1) CAREER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.— 12 The term ‘‘career law enforcement officer’’ means a 13 person employed by a State or local public agency on 14 a permanent basis who is authorized by law to en- 15 gage in or supervise the prevention, detection, or in- 16 vestigation of violations of criminal laws. 17 (2) CONSORTIA.—The term ‘‘consortia’’ means 18 a law enforcement agency and may also include a 19 unit of local government, a child care provider, or a 20 foundation. 21 (3) COVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en- 22 tity’’ means a law enforcement agency or a consor- 23 tium formed in accordance with subsection (d)(3). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •HR 2722 IH (4) INDIAN COMMUNITY.—The term ‘‘Indian 1 community’’ means a community served by an In- 2 dian tribe or tribal organization. 3 (5) INDIAN TRIBE; TRIBAL ORGANIZATION.— 4 The terms ‘‘Indian tribe’’ and ‘‘tribal organization’’ 5 have the meanings given the terms in section 658P 6 of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act 7 of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858n). 8 (6) LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY.—The term 9 ‘‘law enforcement agency’’ has the meaning given 10 such term in section 2503 of the Omnibus Crime 11 Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 12 10533). 13 (7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean- 14 ing given the term in section 658P of the Child Care 15 and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 16 U.S.C. 9858n). 17 (k) APPLICATION TO INDIAN TRIBES AND TRIBAL 18 ORGANIZATIONS.—In this section: 19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub- 20 section (f)(1), and in paragraphs (2) and (3), the 21 term ‘‘State’’ includes an Indian tribe or tribal orga- 22 nization. 23 (2) GEOGRAPHIC REFERENCES.—The term 24 ‘‘State’’ includes an Indian community in sub- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •HR 2722 IH sections (c) (the second and third place the term ap- 1 pears), (d)(1) (the second place the term appears), 2 (d)(3)(A) (the second place the term appears), and 3 (i)(1)(A)(i). 4 (3) STATE-LEVEL ACTIVITIES.—The term 5 ‘‘State-level activities’’ includes activities at the trib- 6 al level. 7 (l) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 8 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 9 appropriated to carry out this section, $24,000,000 10 for each of the fiscal years 2024 to 2028. 11 (2) STUDIES AND ADMINISTRATION.—With re- 12 spect to the total amount appropriated for such pe- 13 riod in accordance with this subsection, not more 14 than $2,500,000 of that amount may be used for ex- 15 penditures related to conducting studies required 16 under, and the administration of, this section. 17 (m) TERMINATION OF PROGRAM.—The program es- 18 tablished under subsection (a) shall terminate on Sep- 19 tember 30, 2028. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 May 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2722.IH H2722 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB