I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3780
To improve the lives of working families by providing family and medical 
need assistance, child care assistance, in-school and afterschool assist-
ance, family care assistance, and encouraging the establishment of family-
friendly workplaces. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 4, 2004
Ms. WOOLSEY (for herself, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. 
KUCINICH, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. LEE, Mr. 
CONYERS, Mr. FRANK
of Massachusetts, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. 
LAMPSON, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. BALLANCE, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, 
Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. LANTOS, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. 
PAYNE, Ms. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. OWENS, and Ms. LINDA T. 
SA´NCHEZ of California) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to 
the Committees on House Administration, Government Reform, and Fi-
nancial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To improve the lives of working families by providing family 
and medical need assistance, child care assistance, in-
school and afterschool assistance, family care assistance, 
and encouraging the establishment of family-friendly 
workplaces.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Family and Workplace Balancing Act of 2004’’ or ‘‘Bal-
ancing Act of 2004’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
TITLE I—PAID LEAVE FOR NEW PARENTS AND FAMILY AND 
MEDICAL LEAVE ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2003
Subtitle A—Paid Leave for New Parents 
Sec. 101. Short title. 
Sec. 102. Purpose. 
Sec. 103. Definitions. 
Sec. 104. Grants. 
Sec. 105. Notification. 
Sec. 106. Report. 
Sec. 107. Authorization of appropriations. 
Sec. 108. Technical and conforming amendments. 
Subtitle B—Family and Medical Leave Enhancement Act of 2003
Sec. 111. Short title. 
Sec. 112. Additional leave for parental involvement. 
Sec. 113. Parental involvement leave for civil servants. 
Sec. 114. Clarification of leave entitlement. 
Sec. 115. Definition of grandchild. 
TITLE II—CHILD CARE EXPANSION AND IMPROVEMENT 
Subtitle A—Care for Young Children 
Sec. 201. Expanding child care for young children. 
Subtitle B—Improving Child Care Quality Through Teacher Incentives 
Sec. 221. Purpose. 
Sec. 222. Definitions. 
Sec. 223. Funds for child care provider development and retention grants, 
scholarships, and health benefits coverage. 
Sec. 224. Allotments to States. 
Sec. 225. Application and plan. 
Sec. 226. Child care provider development and retention grant program. 
Sec. 227. Child care provider scholarship program. 
Sec. 228. Child care provider health benefits coverage. 
Sec. 229. Annual report. 
Sec. 230. Evaluation of health benefits programs by Secretary. 
Sec. 231. Authorization of appropriations.
Subtitle C—Child Care Construction and Renovation Incentive Grants 
Sec. 241. Short title. 
Sec. 242. Use of community development block grants to establish child care 
facilities. 
Sec. 243. Insurance for mortgages on new and rehabilitated child care facilities. 
Sec. 244. Insurance for mortgages for acquisition or refinancing debt of exist-
ing child care facilities. 
Sec. 245. Study of availability of secondary markets for mortgages on child 
care facilities. 
Sec. 246. Technical and financial assistance grants. 
Subtitle D—Business Child Care Incentive Grant Program 
Sec. 251. Business child care incentive grant program. 
TITLE III—PRE-SCHOOL, IN-SCHOOL, AND AFTERSCHOOL 
ASSISTANCE 
Subtitle A—Universal Prekindergarten Act 
Sec. 301. Short title. 
Sec. 302. Findings and purpose. 
Sec. 303. Prekindergarten grant program authorization. 
Sec. 304. State requirements. 
Sec. 305. Local requirements. 
Sec. 306. Professional development set-aside. 
Sec. 307. Reporting. 
Sec. 308. Federal funds supplementary. 
Sec. 309. Definitions. 
Sec. 310. Authorization of appropriations. 
Subtitle B—Universal Free School Breakfast Program 
Sec. 311. Universal free school breakfast program. 
Subtitle C—Nutritional Improvement for Children Served Under Child 
Nutrition Programs 
Sec. 321. Nutritional improvement for children served under child nutrition 
programs. 
Subtitle D—Child and Adult Care Food Program 
Sec. 331. Reimbursements for afterschool dinners. 
Sec. 332. Eligibility of private child care centers. 
Subtitle E—Afterschool Education Enhancement Act 
Sec. 341. Short title. 
Sec. 342. Amendments regarding 21st century community learning centers. 
TITLE IV—IMPROVING THE WORKPLACE FOR FAMILIES 
Subtitle A—Part-Time and Temporary Workers Benefits 
Sec. 401. Treatment of employees working at less than full-time under partici-
pation, vesting, and accrual rules governing pension plans.
Sec. 402. Treatment of employees working at less than full-time under group 
health plans. 
Sec. 403. Expansion of definition of employee to include certain individuals 
whose services are leased or contracted for. 
Sec. 404. Effective dates. 
Subtitle B—United States Business Telework Act 
Sec. 411. Short title. 
Sec. 412. Telework pilot program. 
Sec. 413. Report to Congress. 
Sec. 414. Definition. 
Sec. 415. Termination. 
Sec. 416. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Currently in two-thirds of married families 
with children in the United States, both parents 
work full-time. Seventy-one percent of mothers with 
children under age 18 work full-time, and another 
29 percent work part-time. 
(2) The National Study of the Changing Work-
force found that 70 percent of employed parents in-
dicated that they don’t have enough time with their 
children. 
(3)(A) A survey conducted by the Boys and 
Girls Clubs of America found that more than half of 
the respondents indicated that they had little or no 
time to spend in physical activities with their chil-
dren. 
(B) Parents in 3,500,000 households, rep-
resenting 7,000,000 children, spend an hour or less 
a week doing physical activities with their children.
(C) The primary obstacle cited by the parents 
to engaging in physical activities with their children 
was their work schedules. 
(4) Nearly two-thirds of employees who need to 
take family or medical leave do not take such leave 
because they cannot afford to forgo the pay. 
(5) Nearly every industrialized nation other 
than the United States, and most developing na-
tions, provides parents with paid leave for infant 
care. 
(6) In the United States, more than half of all 
mothers of children under the age of one now work. 
Yet parents of infants and toddlers face acute prob-
lems finding child care, and child care that is avail-
able is often of mediocre quality. 
(7) The cost of child care averages $4,000 to 
$6,000 per year in the United States, and families 
with younger children or with more than one child 
face even greater costs. For example, the average 
annual cost of child care for a 4-year-old in an 
urban area center is more than the average annual 
cost of public college tuition in all but one State. 
(8) The average annual child care teacher sal-
ary is $15,430, a wage so low that many programs 
find it extremely challenging to recruit fully qualified
teachers and to retain them. High turnover rates 
make it more difficult to provide quality and con-
tinuity of care. 
(9) Only 12 percent of eligible children receive 
child care assistance through the Child Care Devel-
opment Block Grant, and only about 3 out of 5 eligi-
ble preschoolers are able to participate in the Head 
Start program. 
(10) Among needy students, school nutrition 
programs often provide the primary opportunity for 
consumption of nutritionally valuable foods. 
(11) Breakfast is a critical meal for children 
and provides the nutrition necessary to optimize 
their learning capacities. 
(12) According to the Bureau of the Census, 
nearly 7,000,000 children in the United States are 
left alone after school each week without adult su-
pervision or structured activities of any kind. 
(13) Violent juvenile crime peaks between the 
hours of 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and teens are 
more likely to be victims of serious violent crime in 
the hour after school lets out than any other time 
of the day.
TITLE I—PAID LEAVE FOR NEW 
PARENTS AND FAMILY AND 
MEDICAL LEAVE ENHANCE-
MENT ACT OF 2003
Subtitle A—Paid Leave for New 
Parents
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 
This subtitle may be cited as the ‘‘Family Income To 
Respond to Significant Transitions Act’’.
SEC. 102. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this subtitle is to establish a program 
that supports the efforts of States and political subdivi-
sions to provide partial or full wage replacement, often re-
ferred to as FIRST insurance, to new parents so that the 
new parents are able to spend time with a new infant or 
newly adopted child, and to other employees. 
SEC. 103. DEFINITIONS. 
In this subtitle: 
(1) EMPLOYER; SON OR DAUGHTER; STATE.—
The terms ‘‘employer’’, ‘‘son or daughter’’, and 
‘‘State’’ have the meanings given the terms in sec-
tion 101 of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 
1993 (29 U.S.C. 2611).
(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Labor, acting after consultation 
with the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 
SEC. 104. GRANTS. 
(a) GRANTS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make 
grants to eligible entities to pay for the Federal 
share of the cost of carrying out projects that assist 
families by providing, through various mechanisms, 
wage replacement for eligible individuals who are re-
sponding to—
(A) caregiving needs resulting from the 
birth or adoption of a son or daughter; or 
(B) other family caregiving needs. 
(2) PERIODS.—The Secretary shall make the 
grants for periods of 5 years.
(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible to receive a 
grant under this section, an entity shall be a State or polit-
ical subdivision of a State. 
(c) USE OF FUNDS.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—An entity that receives a 
grant under this section may use the funds made 
available through the grant to provide partial or full 
wage replacement as described in subsection (a) to 
eligible individuals—
(A) directly; 
(B) through an insurance program, such 
as a State temporary disability insurance pro-
gram or the State unemployment compensation 
benefit program; 
(C) through a private disability or other 
insurance plan, or another mechanism provided 
by a private employer; or 
(D) through another mechanism. 
(2) PERIOD.—In carrying out a project under 
this section, the entity shall provide partial or full 
wage replacement to eligible individuals for not less 
than 6 weeks during a period of leave, or an absence 
from employment, described in subsection (d)(2), 
during any 12-month period. Wage replacement 
available to an individual under this paragraph shall 
be in addition to any compensation from annual or 
sick leave that the individual may elect to use during 
a period of leave, or an absence from employment, 
described in subsection (d)(2), during any 12-month 
period. 
(3) ADMINISTRATIVE
COSTS.—No entity may 
use more than 10 percent of the total funds made 
available through the grant during the 5-year period
of the grant to pay for the administrative costs re-
lating to a project described in subsection (a). 
(d) ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUALS.—To be eligible to re-
ceive wage replacement under subsection (a), an individual 
shall—
(1) meet such eligibility criteria as the eligible 
entity providing the wage replacement may specify 
in an application described in subsection (e); and 
(2) be—
(A) an individual who is taking leave, 
under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 
1993 (29 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.), other Federal, 
State, or local law, or a private plan, for a rea-
son described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of 
section 102(a)(1) of the Family and Medical 
Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)); 
(B) at the option of the eligible entity, an 
individual who—
(i) is taking leave, under that Act, 
other Federal, State, or local law, or a pri-
vate plan, for a reason described in sub-
paragraph (C), (D), (E), or (F) of section 
102(a)(1) of the Family and Medical 
Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)); 
or
(ii) leaves employment, and has an ab-
sence from employment, because the indi-
vidual has elected to care for a son or 
daughter under age 1; or 
(C) at the option of the eligible entity, an 
individual who has an absence from employ-
ment and has other characteristics specified by 
the eligible entity in an application described in 
subsection (e). 
(e) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 
under this section, an entity shall submit an application 
to the Secretary, at such time, in such manner, and con-
taining such information as the Secretary may require, in-
cluding, at a minimum—
(1) a description of the wage replacement pro-
gram; 
(2)(A) information on the number and type of 
families to be covered by the project, and the extent 
of such coverage in the area served under the grant; 
and 
(B) information on any criteria or characteris-
tics that the entity will use to determine whether an 
individual is eligible for wage replacement under 
subsection (a), as described in paragraphs (1) and 
(2)(C) of subsection (d);