Rural Child Care Facility Expansion Act

This bill would let the Secretary of Agriculture, through Rural Development, make low-interest loans to licensed child care providers to renovate, retrofit, expand, or adapt buildings to increase child care in rural communities. Loans could be approved for projects that increase child care in a "child care desert" in a rural community, meaning a census tract with no licensed providers or with at least three times as many children as available child care spots. Rural communities are defined as places with fewer than 20,000 people. The interest rate would equal a Treasury rate plus 1/8 of 1 percent, loans could last up to 25 years, and no more than 10 percent of a loan could go to planning and design. The Secretary would have to respond to applications within set deadlines and report to Congress each year on the loans and child care slots created.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• April McClain Delaney Democrat sponsor
• 5 cosponsors