Sponsors (6)
The bill tightens enforcement against child-care fraud and speeds immigration and administrative action to protect children and taxpayer funds, but it does so by expanding immigration penalties tied to administrative findings and accelerating removal and rulemaking processes—trading stronger fraud deterrence and program integrity for reduced procedural protections, potential harm to legitimate providers, and increased government costs.
Children, parents, and taxpayers benefit from stronger program integrity: permanently debarred child-care fraudsters are barred from HHS funds and from providing care to U.S. children, deterring fraud and protecting children and program dollars.
States are notified when providers commit fraud and can recoup improperly paid federal child-care funds, helping recover public money and limit financial losses to child-care programs.
Immigration and enforcement actions against suspected child-care fraud are accelerated (including clarified triggers for detention and expedited removal), enabling faster removal or exclusion of alleged fraudulent providers and quicker case resolution.
Immigrants (including those with prior administrative debarments) face severe immigration consequences—inadmissibility, loss of asylum/adjustment/naturalization eligibility, and faster removal—based on administrative findings rather than criminal convictions, substantially curtailing rights and relief options.
Administrative referrals and expedited processes increase the risk of criminal prosecutions or removals arising from licensing or eligibility disputes, potentially producing wrongful prosecutions or deportations when complex or disputed facts are present.
Permanent, non-waivable debarment (even after repayment or reorganization) can exclude legitimate providers who made errors, shrinking available child-care options and harming parents and children who rely on those services.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Creates permanent federal debarment for child care providers found to have committed CCDBG fraud and ties that debarment to immigration inadmissibility, expedited removal, and mandatory detention.
Introduced January 14, 2026 by John Cornyn · Last progress January 14, 2026
Creates a permanent federal debarment for child care providers who are finally determined to have obtained Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds by fraud, requires HHS to notify States and pursue recovery, and requires States to bar debarred providers from receiving or participating in State child care programs. Links that statutory debarment to immigration penalties by making permanently debarred alien child care providers inadmissible, removable, ineligible for asylum or adjustment, and disqualified from certain naturalization findings. Establishes a new expedited removal pathway and expands mandatory detention for aliens subject to these fraud-based grounds, allows HHS/DHS/DOJ to bypass some Paperwork Reduction Act and Administrative Procedure Act procedures when they determine delay would impede immediate implementation, and makes the Act effective on enactment with limited retroactivity for certain alien conduct back to September 30, 1996.