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 Sec-
retary of Veterans Affairs to provide child care assistance 
to veterans receiving certain medical services provided 
by the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans’ Access to 
Child Care Act’’. 
SEC. 2. CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE FOR VETERANS RECEIV-
ING MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND OTHER IN-
TENSIVE HEALTH CARE SERVICES PROVIDED 
BY THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AF-
FAIRS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 17 of 
title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following new section: 
‘‘§ 1730D. Child care assistance for veterans receiving 
mental health care and other intensive 
health care services 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (c), the 
Secretary shall provide child care assistance to an eligible 
veteran for any period that the veteran— 
‘‘(1) receives covered health care services at a 
facility of the Department, such as a community- 
based outpatient clinic; and 
‘‘(2) is required to travel to and return from 
such facility for the receipt of such health care serv-
ices. 
‘‘(b) CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE.—(1) Subject to sub-
section (c), child care assistance provided under this sec-
tion may include any of the following: 
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‘‘(A) A stipend for the payment of child care of-
fered by a licensed child care center or extended day 
program (either directly or through a voucher pro-
gram) which shall be, to the extent practicable, mod-
eled after the Department of Veterans Affairs Child 
Care Subsidy Program established pursuant to sec-
tion 590 of title 40. 
‘‘(B) Direct provision of child care at an on-site 
facility of the Department. 
‘‘(C) A payment made directly to a private child 
care agency. 
‘‘(D) A collaboration with a facility or program 
of another Federal department or agency. 
‘‘(E) Such other form of assistance as the Sec-
retary considers appropriate. 
‘‘(2) In the case that child care assistance under this 
section is provided as a stipend under paragraph (1)(A), 
such stipend shall cover the full cost of such child care. 
‘‘(3) The Secretary shall establish criteria for pro-
viding child care assistance under paragraph (1) designed 
to ensure reasonable access to such assistance for veterans 
who experience any unusual or excessive burden to access-
ing child care services, including excessive driving dis-
tances, geographic challenges, and other environmental 
factors that impede such access. 
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‘‘(c) CONDITION ON RECEIPT OF ASSISTANCE.—(1) 
The Secretary may not provide any child care assistance 
under this section to an eligible veteran who is receiving 
covered health care services from the Department unless 
that eligible veteran actively participates in such services. 
‘‘(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘ac-
tively participates’ means, with respect to covered health 
care services— 
‘‘(A) engaging in transit to and from appoint-
ments for such services; 
‘‘(B) attending appointments for such services; 
and 
‘‘(C) such other activities as the Secretary de-
termines appropriate. 
‘‘(d) ANNUAL REPORT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall submit 
to Congress an annual report on the provision of 
child care assistance under this section. Each such 
report shall include, for the year covered by the re-
port, each of the following for each of the categories 
of child care assistance specified in paragraph (2): 
‘‘(A) The average amount of time required 
by the Department to provide a payment for 
child care assistance. 
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‘‘(B) The average cost of child care assist-
ance. 
‘‘(C) The extent to which the Department 
has a backlog of unprocessed claims for child 
care assistance. 
‘‘(D) The number of Department employ-
ees who worked on the processing of claims for 
child care assistance. 
‘‘(E) The average amount of time required 
by such an employee to process such a claim. 
‘‘(F) The number of improper or duplica-
tive payments of child care assistance made. 
‘‘(G) The recommendations of the Sec-
retary for improving the processing of claims 
for child care assistance. 
‘‘(2) CATEGORIES
OF
CHILD
CARE
ASSIST-
ANCE.—The categories of child care assistance speci-
fied in this paragraph are each of the following: 
‘‘(A) Direct stipends. 
‘‘(B) Payments made directly to a child 
care agencies. 
‘‘(C) Stipends provided through a voucher 
program. 
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