The Senate Finance Committee approved a welfare bill last week that would authorize increasing federal aid for child care by $6 billion over five years.
The bipartisan bill, approved by a voice vote, originally included authorization of $1 billion in new money for child care spread over five years, but that amount was increased to $6 billion over five years under an amendment offered by Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine. The money would go to families on public assistance and those moving from welfare to work. The child-care provision is part of the proposed Personal Responsibility and Individual Development for Everyone bill, which would reauthorize the federal welfare program that was overhauled in 1996.
