Sponsors (8)
Official title: Amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to reauthorize and update the Act, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 17, 2025 by Debra Fischer · Last progress September 17, 2025
The bill aims to expand access, quality, and financial stability in child care—prioritizing low-income families and strengthening workforce supports—but does so by imposing substantial new costs and administrative requirements on federal and state governments and risks uneven implementation and reduced transparency if not fully funded and carefully managed.
Low- and moderate-income children and working parents gain clearer and expanded eligibility priorities (including homelessness, kinship, foster care, and income set at ≤85% State median) and strengthened targeting, increasing access to subsidized child care.
Child care providers and the families who rely on them get stronger financial stability through required payment-rate cost models, timelines for timely payments, and state supports (technical assistance, shared services, management coaching).
The child care workforce and quality of care are supported by required investments in professional development, recruitment, and a guaranteed baseline reservation (9%) for quality activities, which can improve retention and program quality (especially for infants and toddlers).
Taxpayers and state budgets face higher costs because the bill requires payment rates that cover full provider costs, expands workforce and quality spending (including a 9% baseline), and opens federal authorization to 'such sums', which may lead to increased federal and state spending.
States and local administrators will face substantial new administrative and implementation burdens—cost-estimation models, biennial reviews, expanded consultations, reporting and data analyses, waiver demonstrations and renewals—that increase workload and compliance costs.
If expanded quality, workforce, and eligibility requirements are not matched with adequate funding or supports, small and home-based providers may be strained or exit the market, reducing local capacity and harming access for families.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Rewrites CCDBG purposes and definitions, replaces fixed authorizations with "such sums as may be necessary" for 2026–2030, raises quality set‑aside to 9%, tightens waiver/reporting and expands state plan duties.
Revises the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act to remove certain reporting deadlines, authorize open-ended funding for 2026–2030, strengthen state plan and consultation requirements, raise minimum set‑asides for quality activities, add new workforce and facility grant authorities, tighten waiver rules for raising eligibility income, and require new state reports on affordability and 10‑year progress. It also updates definitions, purposes, and some cross-references across the statute and directs a USDA regulatory edit to exclude licensed child care providers from a specific regulation. The bill changes how federal child-care policy is authorized and overseen rather than creating a single new entitlement: it shifts fixed dollar authorizations to “such sums as may be necessary,” expands state duties (consultation, plan content, health and safety review, workforce supports), creates reporting and waiver procedures, and adds placeholder authority for supply/facility grants without specifying funding or program detail.