Democrats’ Child-Care Bill Approved : Senate Votes for Tax Credits and Subsidies, Opposes Bush Plan

The Senate today approved a Democratic plan providing subsidies and tax credits to help pay for child care after defeating a White House-backed alternative that relied almost solely on tax relief.

The 63-37 vote in favor of the Democratic leadership plan came minutes after the Senate voted 56 to 44 against the Republican approach, which Democrats contend would not address the need for more child-care openings and improved quality of services.

Republicans had relied on support from conservative Southern Democrats to win approval of its alternative, but most of them sided with their leadership in the partisan showdown.

Under an agreement between the parties, the leadership plan now becomes the centerpiece of the Senate’s child-care package but is still subject to amendment. A final vote is expected Friday.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said President Bush had refused to discuss a compromise on child care, forcing the partisan showdown.

$1.75 Billion in ’90

“We’ve expressed an interest in talking to the White House all along,” Mitchell told reporters minutes before the Senate convened. “The President and his aides have adamantly refused.”

Today’s votes followed a week of debate dominated by floor speeches by the co-authors of the revised Act for Better Child Care, Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), defending it against Republican attack.

The Dodd-Hatch bill would authorize $1.75 billion for fiscal 1990 to help parents and states pay for child care.

Seventy percent of the money would help parents pay for child care, and the rest would be available to the states for programs designed to improve the availability and quality of care.

The revised ABC bill, in the form of an amendment offered by Mitchell, includes two tax changes. One would provide up to a $500 credit to low-income families to pay for children’s health insurance.

The other would make the existing dependent care tax credit refundable to low-income families, some of whom otherwise do not benefit from the provision because they have no federal tax liability to which to apply the credit.

In promoting their alternative, Republican senators argued that the ABC bill’s subsidy provisions would result in state bureaucracies that would limit parental choice in child care.