Sponsors
Introduced March 12, 2026 by Peter Stauber · Last progress March 12, 2026
The bill tightens anti‑fraud, immigration, and enforcement tools to protect children and program integrity and speed removals, but it does so by imposing permanent debarments, expanding immigration consequences and detention, and cutting procedural safeguards—trading stronger fraud prevention and faster enforcement for reduced due process, possible loss of child-care capacity, and higher administrative costs.
Taxpayers, state governments, and program administrators will have stronger anti-fraud tools because HHS can recoup improper child-care payments, require state reimbursement, and permanently debar providers with final fraud findings, improving program integrity and deterrence.
Parents and children will be better protected from dishonest or unsafe child-care providers because individuals with final fraud determinations are permanently barred from federal child-care assistance programs and can be rendered inadmissible or removed if noncitizens.
Immigration adjudicators, DHS, and law-enforcement will have clearer statutory grounds and tools to deny admission or remove applicants linked to child-care fraud or terrorism-associated roles, allowing more consistent decision-making and prioritized enforcement.
Immigrants, child-care providers, and small businesses face reduced due-process protections and civil‑liberties risks because administrative debarments can trigger mandatory criminal referrals, immigration inadmissibility, denial of asylum or adjustment, and other severe consequences with limited avenues to contest.
Parents, children, and communities with limited child-care supply risk losing providers and facing higher costs because permanent, nonwaivable debarments and immigration bars can remove both domestic and immigrant caregivers from the workforce, worsening shortages especially in rural or underserved areas.
Taxpayers and state governments may incur higher administrative and enforcement costs because states could be required to reimburse HHS or lose administrative funds, and expanded detention/removal and litigation increase public expenditures and legal defense costs.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Defines child‑care provider fraud, mandates permanent debarment and recoupment, and imposes immigration inadmissibility, deportability, and expedited removal for permanently debarred providers (retroactive in limited cases).
Creates a new federal definition of fraud for child care providers, requires mandatory permanent debarment for providers with a final fraud finding, forces States to reimburse or have funds deducted, and requires referral for criminal investigation. Makes permanently debarred child care providers inadmissible to the U.S., deportable, ineligible for asylum, adjustment of status, and naturalization, and subjects them to expedited removal and mandatory detention triggers. Exempts HHS, DHS, and DOJ from certain paperwork and rulemaking requirements to accelerate implementation and makes most provisions effective on enactment, with limited retroactivity to frauds committed on or after September 30, 1996 when the person has not been arrested, charged, or indicted.