President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Tuesday aiming to lower costs for child care services and elderly care services, issuing over 50 directives to nearly every cabinet-level agency to expand access to affordable care.
The executive order aims to provide more care to the children of federal workers and military families, and lower costs for families benefiting from the Child Care & Development Block Grant program, the White House said in a statement.
Biden’s order also “directs the Office of Personnel Management to conduct a review of child care subsidy policy and consider setting standards for when and how federal agencies should provide child care subsidies to federal employees,” the statement read, and will instruct the Department of Health and Human Services to “take steps” to increase the pay of Head Start teachers and staff.
Biden’s directive will be funded by established committees, and is a far cry from The American Families Plan he proposed in May of 2021 which aimed to establish free universal pre-school to all 3- and 4-year-olds. (RELATED: Biden’s Childcare Plan Disregards Lower, Middle Class Families Who Don’t Want Daycare, Experts Say)
“President Biden believes that we must secure significant new federal investments to transform care in this country. That’s why he and Vice President Harris called for investments to support high-quality, affordable child care, preschool, and long-term care in their fiscal year 2024 budget. While Congress considers those proposals, the President is taking immediate action to make care more affordable for American families, support family caregivers, boost compensation and improve job quality for care workers, and expand care options,” the White House said.
US President Joe Biden leaves following services at St. Edmond Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on April 15, 2023, where he is spending the weekend. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The president called on Congress to allocate $600 billion in funding to child care and early education in his budget, but is acting via executive order in the meantime.
“The president’s not going to wait to take action to address our nation’s care crisis,” Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Susan Rice said, Reuters reported.
“High-quality care is costly to deliver. It’s labor-intensive. It requires skilled workers. Yet care workers, who are disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants, are among the lowest paid in the country,” she added, according to The Associated Press.
Biden’s announcement comes amid rhetoric from the White House about his incoming 2024 presidential bid announcement. He told reporters Friday that he will make a decision about announcing his candidacy “relatively soon.”