IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 840 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 11, 2019 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide child care assistance 

to veterans receiving certain medical services provided 

by the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
2 

HR 840 RFS

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans’ Access to 

3 Child Care Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE FOR VETERANS RECEIV5 ING MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND OTHER IN6 TENSIVE HEALTH CARE SERVICES PROVIDED 

7 BY THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AF8 FAIRS. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 17 of 

10 title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 

11 end the following new section: 

12 ‘‘§ 1730D. Child care assistance for veterans receiving 

13 mental health care and other intensive 

14 health care services 

15 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (c), the 

16 Secretary shall provide child care assistance to an eligible 

17 veteran for any period that the veteran— 

18 ‘‘(1) receives covered health care services at a 

19 facility of the Department, such as a community20 based outpatient clinic; and 

21 ‘‘(2) is required to travel to and return from 

22 such facility for the receipt of such health care serv23 ices. 

24 ‘‘(b) CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE.—(1) Subject to sub25 section (c), child care assistance provided under this sec26 tion may include any of the following: 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
3 

HR 840 RFS

1 ‘‘(A) A stipend for the payment of child care of2 fered by a licensed child care center or extended day 

3 program (either directly or through a voucher pro4 gram) which shall be, to the extent practicable, mod5 eled after the Department of Veterans Affairs Child 

6 Care Subsidy Program established pursuant to sec7 tion 590 of title 40. 

8 ‘‘(B) Direct provision of child care at an on-site 

9 facility of the Department. 

10 ‘‘(C) A payment made directly to a private child 

11 care agency. 

12 ‘‘(D) A collaboration with a facility or program 

13 of another Federal department or agency. 

14 ‘‘(E) Such other form of assistance as the Sec15 retary considers appropriate. 

16 ‘‘(2) In the case that child care assistance under this 

17 section is provided as a stipend under paragraph (1)(A), 

18 such stipend shall cover the full cost of such child care. 

19 ‘‘(3) The Secretary shall establish criteria for pro20 viding child care assistance under paragraph (1) designed 

21 to ensure reasonable access to such assistance for veterans 

22 who experience any unusual or excessive burden to access23 ing child care services, including excessive driving dis24 tances, geographic challenges, and other environmental 

25 factors that impede such access. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
4 

HR 840 RFS

1 ‘‘(c) CONDITION ON RECEIPT OF ASSISTANCE.—(1) 

2 The Secretary may not provide any child care assistance 

3 under this section to an eligible veteran who is receiving 

4 covered health care services from the Department unless 

5 that eligible veteran actively participates in such services. 

6 ‘‘(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘ac7 tively participates’ means, with respect to covered health 

8 care services— 

9 ‘‘(A) engaging in transit to and from appoint10 ments for such services; 

11 ‘‘(B) attending appointments for such services; 

12 and 

13 ‘‘(C) such other activities as the Secretary de14 termines appropriate. 

15 ‘‘(d) ANNUAL REPORT.— 

16 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall submit 

17 to Congress an annual report on the provision of 

18 child care assistance under this section. Each such 

19 report shall include, for the year covered by the re20 port, each of the following for each of the categories 

21 of child care assistance specified in paragraph (2): 

22 ‘‘(A) The average amount of time required 

23 by the Department to provide a payment for 

24 child care assistance. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
5 

HR 840 RFS

1 ‘‘(B) The average cost of child care assist2 ance. 

3 ‘‘(C) The extent to which the Department 

4 has a backlog of unprocessed claims for child 

5 care assistance. 

6 ‘‘(D) The number of Department employ7 ees who worked on the processing of claims for 

8 child care assistance. 

9 ‘‘(E) The average amount of time required 

10 by such an employee to process such a claim. 

11 ‘‘(F) The number of improper or duplica12 tive payments of child care assistance made. 

13 ‘‘(G) The recommendations of the Sec14 retary for improving the processing of claims 

15 for child care assistance. 

16 ‘‘(2) CATEGORIES OF CHILD CARE ASSIST17 ANCE.—The categories of child care assistance speci18 fied in this paragraph are each of the following: 

19 ‘‘(A) Direct stipends. 

20 ‘‘(B) Payments made directly to a child 

21 care agencies. 

22 ‘‘(C) Stipends provided through a voucher 

23 program. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
6 

HR 840 RFS

1 ‘‘(e) OUTREACH.—The Secretary shall perform out2 reach to inform eligible veterans of the child care assist3 ance available under this section. 

4 ‘‘(f) REQUIREMENTS; RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—(1) 

5 In accordance with paragraph (2), a child care center, 

6 child care agency, or any other child care provider de7 scribed in subsection (b) may not provide child care under 

8 this section if the center, agency, or provider employs an 

9 individual who has been convicted of a sex crime, an of10 fense involving a child victim, a violent crime, a drug fel11 ony, or other offense the Secretary determines appro12 priate. 

13 ‘‘(2) Nothing in paragraph (1) shall supersede, nul14 lify, or diminish any Federal or State law (including any 

15 local law or ordinance), contract, agreement, policy, plan, 

16 practice, or other matter that establishes standards and 

17 requirements for employees of child care centers, child 

18 care agencies, or other child care providers described in 

19 subsection (b) that are more restrictive than the require20 ments specified in paragraph (1). 

21 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

22 ‘‘(1) The term ‘eligible veteran’ means a vet23 eran who— 

24 ‘‘(A) is a primary caretaker of a child or 

25 children; and 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
7 

HR 840 RFS

1 ‘‘(B) is— 

2 ‘‘(i) receiving covered health care serv3 ices from the Department; or 

4 ‘‘(ii) in need of covered health care 

5 services, and but for lack of child care 

6 services, would receive such covered health 

7 care services from the Department. 

8 ‘‘(2) The term ‘covered health care services’ 

9 means— 

10 ‘‘(A) regular mental health care services, 

11 including telemental health services furnished 

12 by the Department, including health care serv13 ices provided as part of readjustment coun14 seling; 

15 ‘‘(B) intensive mental health care services, 

16 including telemental health services furnished 

17 by the Department, including counseling and 

18 care and services under section 1720D of this 

19 title; 

20 ‘‘(C) health care services related to sub21 stance or drug abuse counseling; 

22 ‘‘(D) intensive health care services related 

23 to physical therapy for a service-connected dis24 ability; 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
8 

HR 840 RFS

1 ‘‘(E) emergency mental health care serv2 ices; or 

3 ‘‘(F) such other intensive health care serv4 ices that the Secretary determines that provi5 sion of assistance to the veteran to obtain child 

6 care would improve access to such health care 

7 services by the veteran. 

8 ‘‘(3) The term ‘facility of the Department’ in9 cludes any Vet Center. 

10 ‘‘(4) The term ‘Vet Center’ has the meaning 

11 given that term in section 1712A of this title.’’. 

12 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

13 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 

14 after the item relating to section 1730C the following new 

15 item: 

‘‘1730D. Child care assistance for veterans receiving mental health care and 

other intensive health care services.’’. 

16 (c) FEASIBILITY STUDY ON CHILD CARE FOR VET17 ERANS RECEIVING CARE IN NON-DEPARTMENT FACILI18 TIES.— 

19 (1) STUDY REQUIRED.—The Secretary of Vet20 erans Affairs shall conduct a feasibility study to de21 termine how the Department of Veterans Affairs 

22 could provide child care assistance for veterans who 

23 receive covered health care services (as such term is 

24 defined in section 1730D(c)(2) of title 38, United 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
9 

HR 840 RFS

1 States Code, as added by subsection (a)) from the 

2 Department at non-Department facilities. 

3 (2) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 

4 one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

5 the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on 

6 Veterans Affairs of the Senate and House of Rep7 resentatives a report containing the results of the 

8 study required to be conducted under paragraph (1). 

9 (d) PUBLIC NOTICE.—After the enactment of this 

10 Act, the Secretary shall make publicly available on a De11 partment website notice of the child care assistance benefit 

12 under section 1730D of title 38, United States Code, as 

13 added by subsection (a). Such notice shall be easily acces14 sible and visible and shall include a description of the ex15 panded and cost-free child care assistance for veterans, eli16 gibility requirements, and any additional information the 

17 Secretary determines necessary. 

18 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 

19 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

20 Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to Congress a 

21 report on the effectiveness and accessibility of the child 

22 care assistance provided under section 1710D of title 38, 

23 United States Code, as added by this section, for eligible 

24 individuals who reside in rural and highly rural areas. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
10 

HR 840 RFS

1 (f) AUTHORITY TO CONSULT WITH SECRETARY OF

2 DEFENSE.—In implementing section 1730D of title 38, 

3 United States Code, as added by subsection (a), the Sec4 retary of Veterans Affairs may consult with the Secretary 

5 of Defense. 

6 SEC. 3. STUDY ON EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE. 

7 (a) STUDY REQUIRED.—Not later than one year 

8 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

9 of Veterans Affairs shall conduct a study of the effects 

10 of the child care assistance provided under section 2 on 

11 access to covered health care services, as that term is de12 fined in that section, and on compliance with treatment 

13 protocols. 

14 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the 

15 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Vet16 erans Affairs shall submit a report to Congress regarding 

17 the study required under subsection (a). 

18 SEC. 4. REPORT REQUIRED. 

19 (a) ANNUAL REPORT.—Beginning in the first fiscal 

20 year following the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

21 of Veterans Affairs shall submit, as part of the annual 

22 budget request document for the Department of Veterans 

23 Affairs, a report regarding eligible veterans who received 

24 child care assistance under section 2 during the immeVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:53 Feb 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H840.RFS H840

kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
11 

HR 840 RFS

1 diately preceding fiscal year. Each such report shall in2 clude the following: 

3 (1) The number of such eligible veterans in 

4 each region of the Veterans Health Administration. 

5 (2) If feasible, the number of such eligible vet6 erans per facility of the Department. 

7 (3) The amount of funding for such assistance 

8 made available by the Secretary— 

9 (A) for each region of the Veterans Health 

10 Administration; and 

11 (B) for each type of assistance specified in 

12 subsection (b) of such section. 

13 (4) Findings regarding— 

14 (A) challenges in providing such assist15 ance; 

16 (B) child care not covered by such assist17 ance; and 

18 (C) recommendations to improve such as19 sistance. 

20 (b) BIENNIAL SUPPLEMENT.—Not less than once 

21 every two years, the report under subsection (a) shall in22 clude a supplement regarding the following: 

23 (1) Other challenges regarding child care serv24 ices that prevent veterans from receiving covered 

25 health care services under section 2. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
12 

HR 840 RFS

1 (2) Plans of the Secretary to address challenges 

2 identified under paragraph (1). 

3 (3) An assessment of the extent to which lack 

4 of education by the Department or awareness by vet5 erans of the assistance under section 2 contributes 

6 to a lack of use of such assistance. 

Passed the House of Representatives February 8, 

2019. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS