Sponsor
Michael A. Rulli
Representative · R-OH
Representative · R-OH
The bill strengthens fraud controls and sanctioning to save public funds and protect program integrity, but it raises administrative costs for states and risks delaying benefits or imposing uneven penalties on families and providers.
Taxpayers and state governments: strengthened internal controls reduce provider/client fraud, enabling recovery of misspent funds and saving taxpayer dollars.
Parents, families, and children: better fraud detection and recovery makes it less likely that child care assistance programs lose funding and that eligible families lose access to benefits.
Parents, providers, and state agencies: establishing formal sanction processes deters fraud, improves program integrity, and can increase public trust in child care assistance programs.
Families applying for child care assistance: enhanced eligibility verification and stronger sanction rules could delay benefit approvals and increase application paperwork.
State governments: developing, documenting, and administering stronger internal controls and sanction processes will increase administrative burden and compliance costs.
Parents, families, and providers: if sanctions are applied inconsistently, affected parties could face unfair penalties and costly appeals or legal challenges.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a required “program integrity and accountability” element to CCDBG State plans requiring controls, fraud investigation/recovery, sanctions, and eligibility verification.
Adds a new required element to State Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) three-year plans called “program integrity and accountability.” States must describe internal controls, processes to investigate and recover fraudulent payments, sanctioning mechanisms for clients or providers who commit fraud, and procedures to document and verify eligibility. These plan descriptions become mandatory content of the State plan submitted to the federal Secretary.
Official title: To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to require States disclose agency regulatory participation under such Act.
Introduced February 26, 2026 by Michael A. Rulli · Last progress February 26, 2026