WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, joined by a bipartisan threesome during a press conference Tuesday, introduced a bill that would prevent low-income Americans from “tumbling” into welfare because child care costs consume too much of their pay.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Snowe and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., seeks to amend a law due to expire this September. The measure would preserve parents’ right to choose an appropriate child care facility and would offer incentives to states to promote early education readiness.

Snowe recounted the story of Mainer Sheila Merkinson of Kennebunk, who appeared last month before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families. Merkinson testified that her 2-year-old son’s child care accounts for 48 percent of her weekly income. She remains on a waiting list to receive assistance from the state to help pay for the child care, and meanwhile, continues to make financial sacrifices to keep her job.

The subcommittee hearing was led by chairman Dodd and ranking Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who also is a co-sponsor of the Snowe-Dodd bill.

“Clearly we can do better to support our working families, particularly as we renew our efforts to move more families from welfare to work,” Collins said Tuesday.

In her statement Tuesday, Snowe said her bill, The Access to High Quality Child Care Act, was devised in conjunction with the pending reauthorization of the welfare reform law.

“Welfare reform without additional child care funding is like a new car without any gas,” Snowe said. “It looks good, but it’s not going anywhere. Our bill is the fuel that will drive the next phase in welfare reform.”

Dodd-Snowe will be offered as an amendment to the 1990 Child Care and Development Block Grant, which emphasizes that parents can choose appropriate child care providers, depending upon their child’s needs.

According to a bill summary that Snowe’s and Dodd’s offices offered, the bill maintains this parental choice while adding some other key provisions:

The bill would set aside block grant funds to strengthen the child care work force through scholarships and other benefits.

It would allow states to tap the block grant funds to reimburse parents who pay for child care, thus giving the parents more options in choosing child care providers.

It also would allow additional state reimbursement for “difficult-to-find care,” such as for children who have special needs or live in rural areas.

The measure would try to promote coordination among federal, state and local child care and early child care development programs, including the transition from early care programs to elementary school.

Education is a substantial component of the bill. The senators stressed that the development of a child’s brain is most crucial around ages 3 and 4, and that quality child care during these early years is critical to how the child performs when entering kindergarten.

“Just as a fighter prepares before jumping into the ring, we need to ensure that children are ready when the first bell rings,” Dodd said.

Snowe also noted that Maine was the fourth state to expand child care eligibility beyond people on welfare to those who are coming off welfare. Since more people are eligible for child care in Maine, Snowe’s bill would affect “a broader range of people” in the state, she said.

Sens. Jim Jeffords, the Vermont independent, and John Breaux, D-La., joined Snowe and Dodd at the press conference to endorse the bill Tuesday.

Snowe said she and Dodd intentionally left out any dollar amounts from the legislation. They said they submitted the bill for review to the Congressional Budget Office. When this is complete, Snowe and Dodd will make the appropriate changes. A spokesman for Snowe said the Congressional Budget Office should be ready with a cost estimate in three weeks.