WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today voted to pass legislation that will expand access to and improve the quality of child care for more than 2,500 children and families in Maine that benefit from federal child care subsidy programs.

“Today’s vote marks a significant step forward towards providing quality child care services to countless families across the country,” said Senator King. “Parents who are pursuing a degree or taking on extra shifts to put food on the table now have access to safe and affordable child care services.

“I also applaud my colleagues – on both sides of the aisle – who worked together to get this done. With good will on the part of fellow members, we were able to return to an open process, consider and vote on relevant amendments, and demonstrate to the American people that the Senate is able to function as it should. And thousands of children and their families across Maine and countless more across the country will reap the benefits from the hard work of Democrats and Republicans alike.”

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program is the primary source of federal funding for child care assistance and serves more than 1.6 million children each month. This reauthorization ensures robust funding for the program and also requires states to devote more of the funds to quality child care initiatives, like training, professional development, and professional advancement of the child care workforce.

The bill ensures that CCDBG providers meet certain health and safety requirements related to prevention and control of infectious diseases, first aid and CPR, child abuse prevention, administration of medication, prevention of and response to emergencies due to food allergies, prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and shaken baby syndrome, building and physical premises safety, and emergency response planning. The legislation also gives families more stability in the CCDBG program and works to improve early childhood care also by requiring states to focus on infant and toddler quality initiatives, and also requires mandatory background checks for child care providers in the CCDBG program.

Under the leadership of Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a good-faith agreement was reached to consider CCDBG under regular order, meaning that a reasonable number of relevant amendments were permitted for both Republicans and Democrats and allowed to either pass or fail along a simple, 50-vote threshold. In considering the bill, members on both sides of the aisle reserved their right to offer unrelated amendments or stage a filibuster and, instead, operated in bipartisan accord.

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