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.
And that has zero chance of passing.
It’s weird how the funding for the ICEstapo and sending National Guard into blue cities is never in question…
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.
…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.
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.
I think it’s that category of essential employees who are working without pay that this would be most intended for.
Because they’re better than the rabble. Obviously they should have free childcare, they deserve it. The rest of us should just shut up and continue to struggle. That is our lot.
Narratives like this support DOGE’s actions. The GS-5 working for your local national park is not your enemy, it’s the multi billionaires that used their influence to kill the child tax credit in 2022 to fund a tax cut for them in 2025 that are the problem here. Ilhan’s bill focuses on government employees because it is a messaging bill in a government shutdown environment and because it keeps the bill simple, the government already has mechanisms for OMB to reimburse government employees for eligible expenses, so this is just directing that infrastructure to add a category to the list of eligible expenses as opposed to creating any new systems or changing the tax code. It’s not even close to a final step, but it helps some workers, and that’s better than the current trend of the government stepping on workers in favor of billionaires
I can cop that. My bad.
I still think it’s too little, and it’s cute that it’s coming when it’s pressing for them. Nevermind all the parents that struggle daily to make ends meet. It’s always when it hurts people personally that they care to take action.
You know that “federal workers” doesn’t just mean politicians right?
Bot or Russian/Israeli?
Yes to both, obviously. Check my post history for proof.
Edit: I’m sick of politicians that want special treatment while not pushing for it for the masses. We have politicians trying to spy on everyone, invading their privacy, while also leaving themselves exempt.
It’s ridiculous.
