Last week President Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use their existing statutory authority to make child and elder care cheaper and more accessible. The action doesn’t create new law and doesn’t have an appropriation, but it will eventually change the policies, procedures and leverage federal procurement contracts to make child and elder care more accessible.
If there’s no new law or money, how can the EO change things? Here’s how:
The Order tells federal agencies (e.g., HHS, USDA etc.) to find ways to require applicants seeking federal funds to expand access to childcare. This could be similar to the way the US Commerce Department told companies planning to apply for more than $150 million in CHIPS funding (under the $38B CHIPS and Science Act) that they need to provide a plan to provide childcare to their workers in order to qualify for that funding.
Another example is that the new order tells HHS to use existing authority to reduce childcare costs for families using the Child Care and Development Fund. They’ll likely change their federal regulations (via rulemaking) to reduce or eliminate childcare co-payments in the program. Currently, families contribute on a sliding fee scale (the maximum family copay is 7% of family income) but they can lower that.
Another part of the EO tells the Office of Personnel Management to help federal employees afford childcare. They’re supposed to review current childcare subsidies among federal employees and expand federal employee access to childcare services through federal childcare centers or contracted care providers.
There are limits to what executive orders can do – so this isn’t a watershed action by any means. There’s no guarantee that all these initiatives will actually happen, and the timeline for any of these changes remains uncertain. At least it’s something, though.
