Exclusive: employees would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities under plans initiated by Ilhan Omar
Congressional Democrats are introducing a bill that would provide childcare relief to federal workers affected by the shutdown of the federal government, as it drags on through a second week.
Parents would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities during the shutdown under plans initiated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Any federal employee who has been furloughed, or remains working through the shutdown without pay, would be entitled to support under the Federal Worker Childcare Protection Act of 2025.
As a reminder of how daycare works, you pay regardless of whether your kid attends or not. You could pull them from daycare altogether… But your probably not going to find another slot or opening again.
There should be a carve out of this for anyone who works for DHS affiliated agencies. Those people should go broke and be financially forced into other lines of work.
Wtf? They are furloughed, they are home with their kids. Unless they are essential, then ok I can see it being good. But where is this support for childcare for the people that are essential and not federal workers? Why are the Dems attacking Mamdani when he said he wanted to provide childcare?
I very much doubt you will find an example of Ilhan attacking Mamdani or childcare support. This is at least the second time she’s tried to pass this bill, the first was during Trump’s first term. A majority of federal workers are not furloughed during a shutdown, although it’s hard to find numbers on how many of those are working with pay vs. without pay. I’m positive she also spoke out when Republicans and Manchin and Sinema killed the childcare tax credits from the build back better bill that reduced child poverty to record lows, she’s pretty consistently one of the good ones.
It’s also worth pointing out that this is as much a messaging tactic as a real bill. There ain’t no way Republicans are passing this bill, but having this and other bills like it on the table makes them put up or shut up if they try to attack Democrats for holding government workers’ livelihoods hostage over the shutdown. Having it focus on government workers increases the strength of that message, even if broader relief would still be necessary if this passes.
Introducing bills like this, and thus establishing a counter narrative of “this is what the Democrats want for the country, as opposed to what you are getting today from the Republicans”, is miles better than the Schumer strategy to date of doing his level best to agree to all of the Republican demands in order to make living under the Trump presidency as unbearable as possible in the hopes that people will vote Democrat for change despite Schumer putting no daylight between Democratic and Republican positions.
It costs money to take care of children, in case you weren’t aware.
All the essential workers still work, without pay
I think it’s that category of essential employees who are working without pay that this would be most intended for.
It’s weird how the funding for the ICEstapo and sending National Guard into blue cities is never in question…
Are they really still paying both of those parties? Wtf?
Edit: I’m seeing that they ARE NOT paid during the shutdown. But they are forced to work.
And that has zero chance of passing.
I imagine they know that. But it’s a good headline that “Republicans vote down child care”
Republican voters are only going to hear the “Republicans bravely defend the country from COMMUNISM” spin.
I know… I know. The media landscape in this country is irrevocably fucked.
Yep. It will never pass because it’s socialism, and we can’t have that! /s
…why do they need child care if they are not at work?
I mean, fuck trump, and fuck the entire GOP, and fuck America’s neglect of childcare and the inherently misogynistic implications of everything that entails.
But this is like that old joke about the blind firefighters playing golf…
(A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, “What’s with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes.” The doctor chimed in, “I don’t know, but I’ve never seen such inept golf.” The priest said, “Here comes the greenkeeper. Let’s have a word with him.”
The priest said, “Hello George, what’s wrong with the group ahead of us? They’re rather slow, aren’t they?.” The greenkeeper replied, “Oh yes, thats a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year so we always let them play for free at any time.”
The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, “That’s so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight.,” The doctor said, “Good idea. I’m gonna contact my optomologist colleague and see if there’s anything he can do for them.” The engineer said, “Why can’t they play at night?”)
A lot of daycares won’t keep your spot if you don’t continue to pay. So it would be a gamble whether or not they have a spot for when you DO go back to work. Since they don’t have their normal income, then it might be hard to keep it up.
You still have to pay for daycare even if your kid does not go to keep your spot. And you have to keep your spot otherwise you are mega fucked when you go back to work.
In some areas getting childcare is a 6 months to a year process. My wife had twins and childcare completely destroyed her career. You think getting childcare for one baby is hard, try 2.
Government employees are still going to work even though they’re not getting paid, this bill is to help cover child care expenses that the gov employees are still accruing. And is your comment ai slop? Because your “joke” doesn’t make any sense in the context of the article.
