Sponsors (2)
Directing the GAO to study program integrity could improve service reliability and reduce taxpayer waste, but the review will take time and its recommendations may impose new costs and administrative burdens on governments, providers, and taxpayers.
Parents and children (and their families) are likely to see more reliable delivery of benefits because the GAO study will identify fraud vulnerabilities and recommend fixes, and states/local agencies will receive clearer guidance on program-integrity practices.
Taxpayers could benefit from reduced waste if the GAO's study leads to recovered funds or measures that prevent improper payments.
Implementing the GAO's recommendations may require additional state or federal resources and impose new administrative/data-reporting burdens on providers and local administrators, raising costs for taxpayers or forcing reallocation of program funds.
The GAO study could take up to two years, delaying immediate reforms that might stop ongoing fraud or program errors in the interim.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 25, 2026 by Burgess Owens · Last progress February 25, 2026
Requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study how providers and programs prevent fraud in Federal early childhood education, child care, and child nutrition programs and to report findings and recommendations to two congressional committees within two years. The study must assess prevention procedures, the use and sufficiency of Federal data (including audits and reporting) for identifying fraud, and program-integrity outcomes for CCDBG where states delegate management to local entities, including corrective-action plans and measurable outcomes.