The Appropriations Subcommittee on My LEAP on an uncontested roll call adopted the S-1 amendment and voted 2-1 to report Senate Bill 164 after a briefing on budget changes that would boost state funds for childcare and higher-education initiatives.

The subcommittee chair said the panel’s work links higher education and early childhood programs as part of broader economic-development goals. "Much of our funding comes from the federal government in support of child care, which is pretty critical, for many reasons," the chair said, and described proposals to strengthen provider pay, expand Head Start providers into full-service childcare and support re-enrolling students who stopped out of college.

The clerk summarized the subcommittee’s budget recommendations, saying the “Miley proposal” for the subcommittee shows a 14.3% gross increase from $643,000,000 to $736,000,000 and a general fund increase of 66.2% from $136,500,000 to $226,900,000. The clerk reported a $63,000,000 increase for childcare gap-filling (described in the meeting as GFGP), a $23,000,000 increase to boost provider pay for infant and toddler care, $2,000,000 for a re-enrollment recruitment pilot, and nearly $4,000,000 in expansion grants to help Head Start providers expand into childcare.

The clerk also said the subcommittee recommends a $40,000,000 one-time general fund appropriation to meet federal maintenance-of-effort (MOE) requirements: roughly $38,500,000 to shift payments from post-pay to prepay for providers in a single fiscal year and about $1,500,000 to contract with providers in underserved areas so the state can demonstrate investment where childcare is not currently available. "They've said it's gonna cost 38 and a half million," the clerk said of the prepay transition cost.

Members asked clarifying questions about a boilerplate reporting provision the executive had flagged as unenforceable and about whether the childcare gap-fill reflected a recent federal cut. The clerk and chair explained the MOE and gap-fill are intended to cover shortfalls where federal funding does not fully pay providers’ costs; the meeting record indicates the subcommittee is not attributing the gap-fill to a single recent federal cut.

Senator Kleinfeld moved to adopt the S-1 subcommittee amendment; the clerk called the roll. For the S-1 vote the clerk recorded "Senator Bair? Yes. Senator Kleinfeld? Yes. Senator Albert? No," and declared the S-1 adopted 2 yeas, 1 no. The subcommittee then voted to report SB 164; the clerk recorded two yeas and one nay and announced the S-1 was reported out.

The subcommittee also approved draft minutes from earlier meetings without objection and adjourned. The transcript shows three members were present for the actions recorded.