Childcare, Pell Grants: Kaine's legislative priorities for 2025
Senator Tim Kaine is entering his 13th year in Congress. He spoke with WMRA's Randi B. Hagi about his priorities under a Republican trifecta.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said his priorities for 2025 include "offense" projects that have bipartisan support, and one big piece of legislation he hopes to defend from being cut by Republicans. First on the agenda?
TIM KAINE: Childcare, I just hear from parents and childcare providers, but also employers all the time that if we could have more affordable, high-quality childcare, it would be good for kids, good for parents, good for childcare providers, but it would also get people into the workforce, at a time when the unemployment rate is really low. There's a lot of people who are on the sidelines who want to be working, but they can't find affordable, high-quality childcare.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in November that 1.2 million Americans 16 years or older wanted a job, but were not in the workforce for reasons including family responsibilities.
KAINE: I have a couple of different proposals that I have promoted in the past. One is just more funding for the programs like Head Start, and the Child Care & Development Block Grant. But the other is, I think, a creative bipartisan proposal with Katie Britt, the senator of Alabama, to take three provisions of the tax code that are currently there to either advantage parents as a tax credit for childcare expenses, or employers … and yet these are not well-used tax credits … and so Katie Britt and I have proposed to take them and, frankly, kind of bulk them up so they would be more attractive. … The bill also contains a provision to do some boosting of salaries and wages to childcare providers to keep them in the profession.
Kaine and Britt introduced the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act and the Child Care Workforce Act last July, when they were referred to Senate committees.
KAINE: A second priority that I really care a lot about is job training. … There's such a need for people in the construction and manufacturing industries now that I have a bill called the JOBS Act, that's very bipartisan, to expand the use of Pell Grants to high-quality career and technical education.
The Jumpstart Our Businesses by Supporting Students, or JOBS, Act of 2023 has been cosponsored by 28 fellow Democrats, 19 Republicans, and two Independents. It's also currently sitting in committee.
And the defensive priority?
KAINE: I have been in the Senate during a Trump presidency from 2017 to 2021, and the top priority of President Trump was to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that would have led to 30 million Americans losing health insurance, and millions more that have preexisting conditions now being targeted for discrimination based on those conditions. I have every reason to believe the Trump administration will make an effort again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and as a member of the Health Committee I'm going to do everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen.
According to a March 2024 issue brief from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a total of 45 million Americans are enrolled in Affordable Care Act-related coverage. That includes more than 20 million on Marketplace plans and nearly 19 million people who were then-newly enrolled in ACA-expanded Medicaid. The Biden administration announced Wednesday that nearly 24 million Americans have signed up for Marketplace coverage during the current enrollment period, double the number from four years ago.
I asked Kaine what he feels can reasonably be accomplished under Republican control of Congress and the presidency. Republicans last held the trifecta from 2017-2019.
KAINE: I had a pretty good track record when Donald Trump was president the first time, of getting major legislation on his desk and signed. The tribal recognition of the Virginia tribes was done when Donald Trump was president.
That law gave federal recognition to six tribes in Virginia, including the Monacan Indian Nation based in Amherst County. The formal status makes those tribes eligible for certain financial, housing, and food assistance from the U.S. government.
KAINE: I worked with Mitch McConnell to … raise the age for purchase of any tobacco product at the federal level from 18 to 21. … So I've been through this before and believe that I have colleagues here in the Senate where I have good working relationships, and we can get bills on Donald Trump's desk.
One recent development Kaine's office announced was the allocation of $10.5 million of federal funds to promote digital literacy in Virginia. This money is earmarked to hire "digital navigators," trained staff who will be stationed throughout the state to help community members with the internet.
KAINE: Say you live 30 miles or 40 miles away from UVa hospital, and you go there for medical care. But you're a senior, and driving can be a challenge … but you have the ability to interact with your physicians via telemedicine, but you don't really know how to do it, or maybe your connection isn't that good. What if you, say, live in Greene County – you could drive into the library … in downtown Stanardsville … and then have somebody there who would help you access your healthcare interview at UVa, rather than having to drive all the way to Charlottesville.
Now that the funding has been apportioned to Virginia, Kaine said the state will determine its distribution – possibly through the Department of Education.