HR7203-119

What This Bill Does

The CHIPS Child Care Act creates competitive Labor Department grants to States receiving significant public and private semiconductor manufacturing investment. States can use grants to pay monthly stipends directly to eligible child care providers on behalf of people participating in semiconductor-related workforce programs, semiconductor construction apprenticeships completed or underway within the preceding five years, or pre-apprenticeship programs that place people into semiconductor construction jobs or apprenticeships. Stipends must be at least $500 per dependent child and are not gross income, do not count against federal, State, or local benefit eligibility or benefit amounts, and must supplement rather than supplant wages. States can also help eligible child care providers in semiconductor-investment regions acquire, construct, renovate, improve, adapt, reconfigure, or expand facilities. Priority individuals include first-generation college students, HBCU graduates, rural residents, and veterans. Priority providers include providers serving low-income populations, children under age five with many infants and toddlers, capacity-constrained providers, nontraditional-hour providers, and rural or underserved providers. Construction work must meet Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage standards. States and the Labor Secretary must report retention, completion, compensation, child care access, quality, distribution methods, and demographic information, with 1.5 percent of appropriations reserved for study and reporting.

Who Benefits and How

Semiconductor workforce trainees, construction apprentices, pre-apprentices, first-generation college students, HBCU graduates, rural residents, veterans, parents with dependent children, eligible child care providers, and semiconductor-region communities benefit from child care stipends and facility investments that can help people enter or complete semiconductor manufacturing and construction pathways. Child care providers serving infants, toddlers, low-income families, nontraditional hours, rural areas, or underserved communities benefit from capital funding and direct stipends.

Who Bears the Burden and How

State workforce agencies, Labor Department grant staff, child care providers, semiconductor workforce programs, construction contractors, and grant recipients must administer stipends, prioritize eligible groups, comply with Davis-Bacon wage assurances, collect race, ethnicity, and gender data where reliable, and report retention, completion, wages, benefits, child care access, and program effects. Federal taxpayers bear the authorized cost. Contractors and subcontractors on funded child care facility work must pay prevailing wages.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes $10 million for each of fiscal years 2025 and 2026 for semiconductor-related child care grants.
• Provides monthly child care stipends of at least $500 per dependent child for qualifying workforce participants.
• Funds child care facility acquisition, construction, renovation, improvement, adaptation, reconfiguration, and expansion.
• Prioritizes first-generation college students, HBCU graduates, rural residents, veterans, low-income-serving providers, infant and toddler providers, nontraditional-hour providers, and rural or underserved providers.
• Requires Davis-Bacon prevailing wages for funded child care facility construction and renovation work.
• Excludes stipends from gross income and benefit eligibility calculations and requires State and federal reports.