Clinton To Unveil Child-Care Proposal

President Clinton has assembled a $20 billion package of tax credits and other programs to make child care more accessible and affordable, congressional and White House sources said Tuesday.

The proposals include a permanent 25 percent tax credit for businesses that establish and run child-care facilities for workers or reserve slots in existing centers, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The package, to be unveiled today, also includes what one source called “dramatic expansions” of both the income tax credit that parents can take for child-care expenses and federal contributions to state child-care subsidies for low-income parents and welfare recipients entering jobs.

Two White House officials discussing the package on condition of anonymity would not say how much Clinton would ask Congress to increase this so-called “child-care development block grant” program. Overall, the package of tax credits and subsidies would cost $20 billion over five years, they said.

White House domestic policy chief Bruce Reed called the package “a sweeping plan to help parents balance the demands of work and family by making child care more accessible, more affordable and safer.”