Hi! My name is Shambrie, and I live in Minnesota with my husband and my two young children. Like thousands of other Minnesotan families, the cost of day care is dominating our monthly budget and adds a great financial strain year to year.

We love Minnesota and we love raising our family here, but Minnesota is the fourth most expensive state in the U.S. for day care. For my two children, we spent upwards of $30,000 in 2018 in day care costs! And I know I am not alone with those high costs. It is time we do something about it.

Turns out, Congress has recognized this problem in the past and we have a tool to help!

A dependent care expense account (Dependent Care FSA) is a pre-tax benefit that is used to help pay for qualified out-of-pocket dependent care expenses, such as day care, preschool, summer camps and some before- or after-school programs. The money contributed to a Dependent Care FSA is not subject to payroll taxes, so you end up paying less in taxes and easing the cost of daycare. This gives you more resources to raise your family. Sounds great, right?

Here is the bummer: The Dependent Care FSA maximum is $5,000. This amount was set in 1986 and has remained unchanged, even with the dramatic rise in daycare costs and inflation over the course of 33 years! This amount does not make a dent in modern day care expenses.

If this amount was adjusted for inflation alone, the maximum amount that we could put into our Dependent Care FSA, tax-free, would be $11,483! That is some real cost savings and Minnesota families would be grateful for the helping hand!

There is a bipartisan bill, H.R.1985, which has been introduced in Congress. This bill, also known as “Family Savings for Kids and Seniors Act” will allow the Dependent Care FSA to rise with inflation.

Are you ready to help growing families like mine? Take these two steps to help!

1.      Sign this petition to put our families in a better financial position by alerting our legislators of this problem!

2.      Contact your U.S. Representative and Senator today! Find out who represents you here: https://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/

Thank you for your support and please sign up to receive updates as I reach out to our members of Congress!