The Trump administration says that reducing regulations on child care providers will allow more people, particularly women, to stay employed.

A new White House report says that minimum standards for providers may end up driving up the cost of operating a child care center and reducing the supply of affordable care options for working families. The more expensive care is, the most likely that a parent will choose to withdraw from the workforce to stay at home with their child.

“Regulations that impose minimum standards on providers can decrease the availability and increase the cost of obtaining care, thus serving as a disincentive to work,” said the report.

Over the past twelve years the labor force participation rate has mostly been on a downward trajectory, declining from 66 percent to to a low of 62.4 percent in September of 2015. Since then participation has increased and stood at 63.2 percent in February.

The slight uptick in workforce participation has surprised economists, who expected the decline to continue due to the country's aging population.

The administration is also proposing $1 billion in federal funding for new child care facilities in underserved areas. States will be awarded funding in part if they show that they have reduced regulatory barriers to child care.

The administration may run the risk of appearing indifferent to the safety concerns that naturally come into play. State regulators in Texas, for instance, have come under fire after an investigation by the Austin American-Statesman uncovered numerous incidents of children dying or being abused in daycares that were either unlicensed or largely unregulated.

Ivanka Trump is the face of the administration's child care efforts. While what she says about the importance of affordable child care is similar to what is being said by Democrats, some of whom have proposed child care bills of their own, the administration proposal differs in that it proposes far less money.

Thus far, Democrats have largely dismissed the Trump proposal as little more than a symbolic gesture.

“I'm excited that more people are aware of the barrier that child care is to working families in order to achieve their economic dreams and take care of their families,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., tells NPR. “So we welcome all ideas, but they have to be real ideas.”

Instant Insights /

Trump admin targets child care policies to bring more women into the workforce

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