How Ivanka Trump Wants to Make Child Care More Affordable

First daughter Ivanka Trump is trying to convince politicians to reduce the cost of child care, the New York Times reported.

Trump, who has no official role in President Trump’s administration, is advocating for a new family leave plan currently under consideration by the president, according to the Times. It’s a more inclusive proposal than the one President Trump campaigned on, and would benefit mothers and fathers — both biological and adoptive.

Additionally, the Trump Administration wants to introduce dependent care savings accounts that would allow up to $2,000 in tax-free contributions for applicable child care costs. For low-income parents, the federal government would match 50% on the first $1,000 in contributions. The Administration also wants to expand the child and dependent care tax credit and make it refundable for low-income parents, according to the Times.

“One of the important elements of this plan revises the current tax code to eliminate the disincentive for re-entry into the work force,” Trump told the Times. “Women, who are disproportionately most likely to step out of the workforce to provide unpaid care, often lack the ability to return to work because it can be hard to rationalize stepping back into the work force and incurring the enormous expense of child care when you are also making less than the primary earner in your home yet taxed at the highest household rate.”

Once the plan is finalized, the challenge, however, will be getting it passed. As the Times noted, both parties have disagreed on the issue, and in particular how to fund it, in the past. The Times reported that Trump met with a group of female Republican lawmakers last month at the White House to discuss how to advance the plan.

“She’s a young mother, she wants to help young mothers in the work force, and I think she can be a good voice here,” Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who attended the meeting, told the Times.

[The New York Times]