Conferees OK Big Hike in Child Care Subsidies : Congress: An increase of $1.2 billion is approved. Bush has opposed the bill and could veto it.

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Thursday night on legislation to increase direct child care subsidies by $1.2 billion in 1990 in a last-ditch effort to get a bill passed before Congress adjourns.

The agreement was reached by conferees from the two bodies after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) dropped his demand that states be allowed to issue vouchers for a new $300-million preschool education program for 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families.

In exchange, House Democrats agreed to allow more of the money to go to rural areas at the discretion of governors and permit states to issue vouchers that parents could use to pay for day care services provided by churches or private enterprises or nonprofit organizations such as YMCAs.

Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.) and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), the chief authors of the legislation, said that Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are now committed to passing a child care bill before Congress adjourns, possibly before Thanksgiving.

The Bush Administration has vehemently opposed the bill, and House Republicans left the meeting before the final vote. However, Bush backed off a veto threat after the Senate approved its version in June.

“At least we have a running shot now with a bill that the President might not veto,” said Hatch, who angered the Administration and conservative groups by joining with liberal Democrats last spring in helping put together the basic package.

A separate group of House and Senate negotiators still has to reach accord on another provision that is part of the child care package that would increase tax credits for poor families with children by $500 to $750 a year.

But House and Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday instructed the chairmen of their tax-writing committees to try to settle differences over that issue by Monday night in a drive to get a vote on the House floor by the end of next week.

With public opinion polls indicating that a large majority of Americans favor federal aid for child care, Democrats are hoping that Bush will not veto the bill, even though an adjourned Congress would not have an opportunity to override a veto.

But, if he does, said Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Congress will pass the same measure again early next year at the opening of the 1990 election cycle.

“It’s going to be pretty damned hard to get anybody in 1990 to vote against child care,” Hawkins said.

No one knows exactly how much of the federal block grants to states are now spent on child care subsidies, but estimates range from $400 million to $1 billion a year.

The legislation would establish a new program that would devote an additional $750 million specifically for child care services.

Another $150 million would be added to the Head Start preschool program that now reaches about half a million disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-olds each year with the aim of turning those facilities into all-day, year-round child care centers.