On Tuesday, the House is set to start consideration of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package the Senate passed over the weekend. It contains about $40 billion in funding for child care.

Nearly $15 billion would help fund child care for low-income families, and about $24 billion would go to child care providers to help cover operating expenses.

“That includes rent, utilities. It includes all of the types of payments that providers have to make to stay open,” said Rhian Allvin, CEO of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

She said this funding will be essential for child care providers who operate on thin margins.

“A provider is able to stay open based on the provider’s ability to maintain really high enrollment,” Allvin said. “And that is the part of the system that flipped upside down when COVID hit.”

Many providers have closed, at least temporarily, or gone into debt, said Christine Johnson-Staub at the Center for Law and Social Policy.

“We were at risk of really losing a large portion of our child care capacity,” Johnson-Staub said.

This money, she said, would help stabilize child care programs and make the system stronger going forward.