Congressman Kim Introduces Legislation to Expand Servicemembers’ Access to Affordable Childcare

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Andy Kim (NJ-03) introduced his first bill of the 118th Congress, the Military Child Care Transparency and Expansion Act to deliver greater transparency and access to childcare for servicemembers and their families.

“When I talk to our servicemembers at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and around the country, finding and affording childcare is routinely their and their family’s top concern. We need to do better in supporting them and their families stationed at home and abroad,” said Congressman Kim. “That is why I wanted this to be the first bill I introduced in the 118th Congress. I believe we need to be focused on easing everyday costs and the stresses of finding and affording childcare for our men and women in uniform. By prioritizing childcare availability, we can immediately improve military families’ daily lives. I am proud to introduce legislation and urge members on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, our servicemembers, and military families.”

The Military Child Care Transparency and Expansion Act would expand the Child Care in Your Home in-home fee assistance pilot program to an additional region to be determined by the Department of Defense (DoD). Congressman Kim’s bill would build on the success of this program and help more servicemembers and their families by offsetting the cost of in-home childcare, reducing everyday expenses especially for military families in areas with high childcare demand and low availability.

This legislation would also create greater transparency on current childcare availability by requiring the DoD to disclose where servicemembers are on waitlists for Child Development Centers online and create a model with existing data on childcare availability at duty stations. This would leverage existing data to showcase the need to prioritize servicemembers’ and military families’ access to childcare.

Full text of the bill can be found here.

Congressman Kim previously helped pass the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act, including provisions to expand childcare access for military families. Congressman Kim is the Ranking Member on the Military Personnel Subcommittee, and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Select Committee on China. More information about Congressman Kim’s accessibility, his work serving New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, and information on newsletters and his monthly town halls can be found on his website by clicking here.

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