Child Care Infrastructure Act

This bill puts money into fixing and expanding child care facilities so more families can find safe, reliable care. It tells the federal government to study the condition of child care centers now and over time, including how COVID-19 changed capacity, costs, and enrollment, and to publish one report within 1 year and another within 4 years. At the same time, it creates grants to help states and certain organizations build, repair, or expand child care spaces, including home-based programs. The grants must focus on facilities that serve low‑income families, care for many infants and toddlers, operate during nontraditional hours, or are in rural or underserved areas, especially places that had to cut back because buildings were in poor shape.

• Who is affected:

  • Child care providers (center‑based and home‑based) and the families they serve
  • States, tribes, and territories
  • Intermediary groups that finance and support community facilities (like certified community development financial institutions and tribal organizations)

• What changes:

  • States can get multi‑year grants (up to 5 years) to acquire, build, renovate, or improve facilities; each state’s grant is capped at $250 million per year. States must chip in a 10% match (tribes are exempt) and report results after the grant ends .
  • Intermediary groups can get grants (up to $15 million each) to offer financing tools and technical help to develop child care facilities, with priority for experience and for meeting needs across different communities and schedules .
  • All construction and renovation funded by these grants must pay local prevailing wages under Davis–Bacon rules.
  • The federal government must report on the overall effects of the grants by the end of fiscal year 2030.

• Funding and timing:

  • Authorizes $10 billion for fiscal year 2026, available through 2030. Sets aside 3% for tribes and 3% for territories; 10%–15% is for intermediary grants; up to $5 million may be used for the needs studies. Grants to territories are exempt from certain overall caps on payments to territories.