II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1539

To provide for the acquisition, construction, and improvement of child care

facilities or equipment, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

AUGUST 5, 1999

Mr. DODD (for himself and Mr. DEWINE) introduced the following bill; which

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,

Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To provide for the acquisition, construction, and improvement of child care facilities or equipment, and for other

purposes.

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Care Facilities

5 Financing Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS.

7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
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1 (1) CHILD CARE FACILITY.—The term ‘‘child

2 care facility’’ means a center-based or home-based

3 child care facility.

4 (2) ELIGIBLE INTERMEDIARY.—The term ‘‘eli5 gible intermediary’’ means a private, nonprofit inter6 mediary organization that has demonstrated experi7 ence in—

8 (A) providing technical or financial assist9 ance for the construction and renovation of

10 physical facilities;

11 (B) providing technical or financial assist12 ance to child care providers; and

13 (C) securing private sources for capital fi14 nancing of child care or other low-income com15 munity development.

16 (3) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENT.—The term ‘‘eligible

17 recipient’’ means—

18 (A) any existing or new center-based or

19 home-based child care provider that provides

20 services to eligible children under a program

21 carried out under the Child Care and Develop22 ment Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858

23 et seq.), or another program serving low-income

24 children as determined by the Secretary; and
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1 (B) any organization in the process of es2 tablishing a center-based or home-based child

3 care program or otherwise seeking to provide

4 child care services to children described in sub5 paragraph (A).

6 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

7 the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

8 (b) GRANT AUTHORITY.—The Secretary may award

9 grants on a competitive basis in accordance with this sec10 tion to eligible intermediaries to assist the intermediaries

11 in carrying out the activities described in subsection (e).

12 (c) APPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to receive a grant

13 under this section an eligible intermediary shall submit to

14 the Secretary an application, in such form and containing

15 such information as the Secretary may require.

16 (d) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under this sec17 tion the Secretary shall give a priority to applicants under

18 subsection (c) that serve low-income areas or individuals.

19 (e) USE OF FUNDS.—

20 (1) REVOLVING FUND.—Each eligible inter21 mediary that receives a grant under this section

22 shall deposit the grant amount into a child care re23 volving fund established by the eligible intermediary.

24 (2) PAYMENTS FROM FUND.—Subject to sub25 section (f), from amounts deposited into the revolv-
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1 ing fund under paragraph (1), each eligible inter2 mediary shall provide technical and financial assist3 ance (in the form of loans, grants, investments,

4 guarantees, interest subsidies, and other appropriate

5 forms of assistance) to eligible recipients to pay for

6 the Federal share of the cost of the acquisition, con7 struction, or improvement of child care facilities or

8 equipment, or for the improvement of related man9 agement and business practices, for each such recipi10 ent. Funds may be used solely for the purpose of

11 providing technical or financial assistance.

12 (3) LOAN REPAYMENTS AND INVESTMENT PRO13 CEEDS.—Any amount received by an eligible inter14 mediary from an eligible recipient in the form of a

15 loan repayment or investment proceeds shall be de16 posited into the child care revolving fund of the eligi17 ble intermediary for redistribution to other eligible

18 recipients in accordance with this section.

19 (f) FEDERAL SHARE.—

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of the

21 cost described in subsection (e)(2) shall be not more

22 than 50 percent.

23 (2) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—The non-Federal

24 share of the cost may be provided in cash or in kind,
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1 fairly evaluated, including plant, equipment, or serv2 ices.

3 (g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

4 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section

5 $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2000 through 2004.

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