Sponsors (10)
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 seeks to expand access, quality, and workforce supports for child care while giving states and HHS more flexibility and transparency — but it raises federal spending pressure, creates substantial new administrative and compliance burdens, and introduces risks of uneven implementation and weakened timing-based oversight.
Low-income children and families: the bill expands and clarifies eligibility and prioritization (homeless, kinship, foster, underserved groups) and preserves pre‑waiver income/asset protections, increasing the likelihood that vulnerable children keep or gain subsidized care.
Parents and families: measures to authorize infrastructure grants, require sliding fee scales/reduced copayments for part‑time care, and direct states to study and plan copayment reductions together improve prospects for more available, affordable child care and shorter waitlists.
Child care providers and the early childhood workforce: new emphasis and reserved funding for recruitment, training, retention, and quality improvements (including a statutory minimum reservation) should strengthen workforce stability and program quality.
The public, Congress, and program beneficiaries: removing a fixed statutory reporting date weakens guaranteed timeliness and predictability of federal reporting, reducing routine oversight and potentially delaying important public‑health/preparedness information.
States, providers, and local agencies: the bill imposes many new documentation, certification, modeling, consultation, reporting, and rulemaking requirements that substantially raise administrative and compliance burdens, potentially causing delays, higher administrative costs, and diversion of resources from direct services.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: open‑ended authorizations ('such sums as may be necessary'), higher payment‑rate expectations, expanded program purposes, and reserved quality funds increase the likelihood of higher federal and state spending and greater pressure on discretionary budgets.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Revises CCDBG: updates definitions, state plan and waiver rules, creates a facilities grant authority, raises quality-reserve minimums, and changes authorization to 'such sums as may be necessary' for FY2027–2031.
Revises the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) statutes to update definitions, state planning and reporting requirements, reservation rules for quality activities, and waiver procedures; creates a statutory grant authority for child care supply and facilities; and replaces fixed past-dollar authorizations with an open-ended “such sums as may be necessary” authorization for FY2027–FY2031. The bill also requires new state consultations with parents, providers, and employers, directs the USDA to exclude licensed child care providers from a specified loan-regulation provision, and adds detailed reporting and planning duties for lead state agencies and the Secretary. Together the changes expand program purposes to emphasize workforce supports, mixed delivery systems, early learning and continuity of care, tighten waiver application and renewal controls, and increase minimum funding reservations for quality activities while leaving specific appropriation amounts to the annual budget process.