With a variety of new policies on the verge of implementation, one can’t help but wonder…What’s next for my family and me?

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations Bill, and it included a proposed $4 million increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), roughly $2.86 billion for FY 2018. In addition, Head Start would receive $9.275 billion, a increase of $22 million from this year. Of the total amount, $640 million would be reserved for the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Program. The Preschool Development Grant Program would maintain its authorized level of funding in FY 2018 ($250 million). As a reminder, the Trump Administration proposed to cut funding for all of these programs.

Earlier today, the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), released a third version of the "Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA)," that would change or eliminate major provisions of the federal health care law.

Help for families struggling to pay for quality child care, such as the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), is, pivotal to supporting quality child care in the nation. Strategically, states are already investing CCDBG funds in raising the quality of child care programs, as well as in efforts to improve affordability of and access to child care that support workforce participation throughout the economy. We need data from states to understand the child care landscape and help guide state and community-level decision-makers, policymakers, child care advocates, and program administrators in their push for accessible, affordable, quality child care.

With June we welcomed the start of summer—longer days, the end of the school year, and summer vacations. We are pleased to share several exiting new work, most notably our recently released child care state licensing database. Additionally, read more below about our advocacy work on the horizon in states, important programmatic initiatives gaining traction, and upcoming webinars for our members. Look for the release of our 2017 State Fact Sheets on July 13, and stay tuned for more details on upcoming work around states-based child care deserts research.

Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently introduced legislation that would help provide more child care support and flexibility to military families. The "Availability of Child Care for Every Servicemember and Spouse (ACCESS) Act of 2017" would apply to child care facilities on military bases and installations, as well as community providers. Today, nearly two-thirds of military families lack access to quality child care.