The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump this month, contains many provisions that will make life more difficult for low- and middle-income families. But there are some victories in the legislation for average Americans.

Most important among those are details designed to bolster child care. More work must be done to assist parents who have young children, but the attention given to child care is long overdue and warrants applause.

The controversial bill expands the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, the first permanent augmentation since 2001; triples the maximum credit to employers who help locate or provide child care for employees, also the first expansion since 2001; and increases the pre-tax contributions parents can make toward child care expenses under Dependent Care Assistance Plans, the first update since 1986.

To be sure, much of the One Big Beautiful Bill is damaging to working families. It slashes funding for nutrition benefits, including for families with children, and it slashes funding for Medicaid, which covers 41 percent of all births in the United States. The new law also cuts $100 million from the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides nutritional support, education and resources for low-income pregnant and postpartum women and children up to age 5.

Many of those cuts do not take effect until after the midterm elections — a cynical ploy by congressional Republicans who hope that Americans are not paying attention before they cast ballots next year. Meanwhile, the legislation manages to provide tax cuts for high-income earners and is expected to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Overall, the bill is an abomination, making the attention to child care a nugget in a mountain of fool’s gold. And an article from Fortune magazine gives some of the credit for that to grassroots organization Moms First.

“Child care, as you know, has been seen as a personal problem for women and workers, but not an economic imperative,” said Reshma Saujani, the group’s CEO. “We knew we needed to get businesses to make the case … when we were in those offices, many of the Republicans and the Democrats, quite frankly, noted that this was the first time businesses had ever been in their office to advocate for child care.

“We knew we needed to make clear that child care was the linchpin of affordability. This president and Congress had gotten elected on affordability.”

That highlights the reason child care has long been overlooked by legislators at both the national and state levels. It too often is presented as an entitlement rather than a bedrock of the American economy, and it demands focused attention instead of being included as an afterthought in expansive legislation.

A lack of affordable, accessible child care keeps too many Americans out of the workforce, limiting economic growth. As Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has said: “How did we get here? Because our nation has never seriously taken the issue of child care as an incredibly important foundation to our economy. Right now, our country is losing revenue because we don’t have a child care infrastructure.”

Murray routinely has introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, taking a targeted approach to assisting working families. While congressional members have gingerly taken steps toward addressing the issue, they would be wise to give it their full attention.