Senator Reverend Warnock, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Expand Childcare Relief

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act permanently expands childcare tax credits to alleviate childcare costs for working families

Senator Reverend Warnock has long been a champion for providing tax cuts to working families

Last week, Senator Reverend Warnock introduced the American Family Act, which would nearly double the Child Tax Credit (CTC)

Senator Reverend Warnock: “The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act will help parents and caregivers afford caretaking costs in a time when margins are tight for many families across the country. Tax cuts should go to hardworking Americans, not the wealthiest people in the nation”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced legislation to help more working families cover the rising cost of childcare by increasing the childcare tax credit.

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act would permanently expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC). This bill would help ease the burden of high childcare costs on working families by increasing the maximum tax credit to $4,000 per child, allowing families to receive up to $8,000 in tax credits to offset up to $16,000 in expenses. It would also make the credit refundable to ensure low-income working families can benefit. The credit would also be indexed to inflation to retain its value over time.

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act would:

Increase the maximum credit amount to $4,000 per child, allowing families to receive up to $8,000 in tax credits to offset up to $16,000 in expenses;
Automatically adjust it to keep pace with inflation;
Save money by phasing out the credit for families making more than $400,000; and
Ensure low-income families can benefit from the tax credit by making it refundable.

“American families have to deal with hefty expenses when raising a child or caring for a loved one. That’s why the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act is so crucial, especially right now,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “It will help parents and caregivers afford caretaking costs in a time when margins are tight for many families across the country. Tax cuts should go to hardworking Americans, not the wealthiest people in the nation.”

“I constantly hear from families in Minnesota who are struggling with the high cost of childcare. For some, it rivals mortgages and is even higher than tuition at the University of Minnesota. Families need real relief and this bill will lower costs and put more money back into the pockets of parents,”said Senator Smith. “When childcare works, everything else does, too—families thrive, the economy grows, and our communities get stronger. That’s why I’m committed to fighting to lower costs and improve access to childcare.”

“No matter where I go in New Hampshire, families tell me about how much they struggle to access affordable child care,” said Senator Shaheen. “The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit is a proven and effective tool for bringing quality, affordable child care within reach for more families. Expanding this credit to keep up with the rising cost of child care is the right thing to do for workers, families and our nation’s economy.”

“Instead of addressing the growing child care crisis, Trump is indiscriminately firing the very workers who help child care and Head Start centers keep their doors open—making child care more expensive and harder to get for working parents,” said Senator Murray. “While Trump raises families costs by nearly $4000 a year and pushes child care even farther out of reach, my Democratic colleagues and I are continuing to fight to lower families’ costs in every possible way, and I am proud to reintroduce the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act as one additional way to help get families some additional relief to afford the child care they need.”

“The cost of raising a family in this country is already way too high, and it’s getting even more expensive as Trump’s global tariffs jack up the cost of food, cars and products families use every day,” said Senator Wyden. “This proposal is a commonsense, pro-family policy aimed at helping parents and people caring for loved ones, and it’s striking that this kind of bill is nowhere to be found in the Republican tax agenda that costs a staggering $7 trillion. Trump and Republicans are locked in on giving trillions in new handouts to corporations and the wealthy and sticking everybody else with the bill, but pro-family proposals like this one prove that there’s a better way forward.”

As a Head Start alum, Senator Warnock has long supported child care and early education programs. In September of 2023, Senator Warnock introduced his bipartisan HEADWAY Act (Head Start Education and Development Workforce Advancement and Yield Act). The legislation would address early child care workforce shortages by allowing Early Head Start classroom teachers to teach and earn their Child Development Associate (CDA) credential simultaneously. Additionally, last week Senator Warnock introduced the American Family Act legislation to provide the most generous expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to date. Senator Warnock successfully pushed to include an expansion of the CTC in the American Rescue Plan, which helped cut child poverty across the country in half until Congress let the tax cut expire. In 2022, Senator Warnock called on Congress to extend the tax cuts for working families and urged the Biden Administration to secure an extension of the expanded CTC as a centerpiece of any subsequent negotiations on economic legislative priorities.

In addition to Senators Warnock, Smith, Shaheen, Murray, and Wyden, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act is cosponsored by Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Angus King (I-ME), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

The bill is also endorsed by the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, Child Care Aware of America, Save the Children, First Focus Campaign for Children, First Five Years Fund, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Moms Rising, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Zero to Three, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC).

One pager of the bill is availableHERE.

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