President Joe Biden will sign an executive order in the Rose Garden Tuesday aimed at bolstering the “care economy,” the White House said, issuing more than 50 directives across nearly every Cabinet-level agency in an effort to expand access to long-term care and child care.
Tuesday’s order aims to expand and guarantee access to affordable child care for families, including military families, according to the White House. Per a fact sheet shared with CNN ahead of the announcement, the White House is directing federal agencies to “identify which of their grant programs can support child care and long-term care for individuals working on federal projects, and consider requiring applicants seeking federal job-creating funds to expand access to care for their workers,” as well as directing the Department of Defense to take steps to improve the affordability of child care on military installations.
The Office of Personnel Management, according to the order, would be directed to conduct a review of child care subsidy policy and consider setting government-wide standards for federal government employees to access such assistance. Expanded access, according to the order, could come “through federal child care centers, child care subsidies, or contracted care for providers.”
Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice called the move “historic” during a call with reporters previewing the executive order, though any additional funding for such efforts would face an unlikely road in Congress.
“Child care and long-term care systems in this country just don’t work well – high quality care is costly to deliver, it’s labor intensive, it requires skilled workers,” Rice said. “Yet care workers – who are disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants – are among the lowest paid in the country, despite working in some of the most important and complex and…
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