Sponsors (9)
Official title: To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to reauthorize and update the Act, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 9, 2026 by Ryan Mackenzie · Last progress June 9, 2026
The bill increases access, affordability, quality, and stakeholder input for child care while giving agencies more flexibility and creating new workforce and planning supports — but it does so with significant new costs, added administrative and reporting burdens, potential uneven state-by-state outcomes, and some reduction in statutory oversight predictability.
Low-income, vulnerable, and rural children and families will gain clearer priority and improved access to subsidized child care (explicit eligibility for homeless, kinship, foster children; retention of pre-waiver eligibility; prioritization of underserved groups).
Child care workers and providers receive stronger support for workforce stability and quality (training, recruitment/retention programs, reserved quality funding, and reporting on compensation), which should improve staff retention and program quality over time.
Families (especially lower-income and part-time users) will see better affordability and predictability (sliding fee scales, reduced copays for part-time care, 85% state median income cutoff for eligibility predictability, and studies/plans to lower copays).
Taxpayers and federal/state budgets face higher costs and fiscal pressure (open-ended 'such sums' authorization, higher payment-rate expectations, expanded program purposes, and a larger guaranteed quality reservation), which could increase federal spending or require trade-offs elsewhere.
States and local agencies (and some providers) will face substantial new administrative, certification, reporting, and consultation burdens—adding staff time, systems changes, and costs—that may strain capacity, slow implementation, and disproportionately burden smaller or rural jurisdictions.
Removing fixed statutory reporting dates and replacing dollar authorizations with 'such sums' weakens predictable congressional/public oversight and could make program timing and funding less transparent to the public and lawmakers.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Modernizes CCDBG: updates purposes/definitions, creates facilities grant authority, tightens waivers, raises quality reservation to 9%, and authorizes 'such sums' for FY2027–FY2031.
Makes targeted changes to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) law to update program purposes, definitions, state planning and consultation requirements, reporting, and grant authorities; creates a statutory basis for child care supply and facilities grants; and replaces prior fixed-dollar authorizations with an indefinite-authority funding authorization for FY2027–FY2031. It also raises the minimum reservation of CCDBG funds for quality activities and tightens the rules and procedures for State income‑requirement waivers. The bill adds new State duties (consultation, reviews of health and safety rules, workforce recruitment/training initiatives, and expanded reporting), requires regulatory changes at USDA to exempt licensed child care providers from a specified rule, and instructs the Secretary to compile State reports for Congress. Many edits are technical or renumbering, but several are substantive policy changes affecting eligibility, priorities, funding structure, and oversight.