Iowa Republican votes against funding child care, then hosts roundtable on the need to fund child care

After voting against the Build Back Better Act last Friday, Rep. Ashley Hinson (IA-1) held a roundtable with childcare providers to increase affordable child care access in Iowa.

The bill she voted against, which passed the House almost precisely along party lines, will provide $380 billion in new spending to lower the cost of child care and pre-kindergarten, the Washington Post reported.  

“Working families in Iowa continue to struggle to find affordable child care options,” Hinson said in a press release Friday after she voted against the legislation.

Hinson said she would “continue working on common sense ways increase access to affordable, quality child care for working families.”

The White House estimates the investments in child care in Build Back Better would expand access to preschool for over 6 million children and open up access to child care for 20 million.

It caps the cost of child care at 7% of the household income for families earning up to 250% of their state’s median income. The new law also extends the child tax credit through 2022.

As Heartland Signal previously reported, monthly payments to parents through the expanded child tax credit had also saved 3 million children from falling below the poverty line as of July.

Last week, Hinson railed against the social spending bill on Twitter.

“Americans can’t afford Spkr [sic] Pelosi’s radical agenda,” she wrote at the top of a tweet thread. “This legislation will make life even less affordable and more difficult for working families.”

Roughly an hour later, Hinson voted against making child care more affordable.