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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today offered its strong support for legislation that would make permanent a pilot program permitting federal agencies to use already appropriated funds to provide child care tuition assistance. NTEU has been the leader in advocating such a program and making it a permanent part of federal agency benefit packages.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said H.R. 555, the Child Care Affordability for Federal Employees Act, introduced by Rep. Constance Morella (R-MD), is “the type of important step we must take if the federal government truly is serious about being a competitive employer.” H.R. 555 has 30 initial co-sponsors.

In each of the past two years, legislation permitting agencies to use appropriated funds to help provide child care tuition assistance has been included in the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations bill. The current pilot program, championed by Rep. Morella, runs until the September 30 end of the fiscal year.

Working through labor-management partnership councils, NTEU has put in place child care tuition assistance programs in a variety of agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and with a number of operating units of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kelley noted that about one-fourth of all federal employees are the parents of children under the age of six, who are in need of some form of care during the work day. “As the nation’s largest employer,” she said, passage of H.R. 555 will allow the federal government to “continue to attract and retain quality employees by offering a benefit commonly offered by private sector employers.”

NTEU’s most recently negotiated program, with the IRS, extends and broadens their current program with a commitment of $1 million in the current fiscal year. Child care tuition assistance programs follow guidelines issued by the Office of Personnel Management to determine eligibility, and use a sliding scale of total family income to calculate the amount of assistance available to a particular employee.

Passage of this bill, Kelley said, “would signal a clear understanding” by Congress of the importance of helping federal employees balance their work and family lives and “would be another important tool” in the battle agencies face over recruiting and retaining quality workers.