During the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to ease the burden of paying for child care with an $8,000 tax credit. But as his agenda items were pared back in the Senate, a child care provision was left on the cutting room floor.

The initial version of Biden's Build Back Better bill would have substantially expanded funding and eligibility for federal child care assistance. Under the bill, parents would have received help with their child care costs as they incurred them during the year, rather than having to pay up front and then wait until the following year to have some of those costs reimbursed through the tax system.

The bill passed the House, but in the Senate, Democrats decided that they couldn't agree on a measure that broad. 

The bill that ultimately passed the Senate — and that is expected to pass the House and be signed by Biden — was limited mostly to elements on climate change, health care and corporate taxation. It did not address child care, and experts consider it unlikely to be revived in the short term.

"I don't see a path (to revive it) if the Democrats don't keep the Senate and the House," said Kyle Pomerleau, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Until we see evidence to the contrary, we rate this promise Stalled.