Sponsors (9)
The bill provides significant federal investment and program structure to expand training, pay protections, and supports for the direct care workforce—likely improving care for seniors and people with disabilities—but does so at notable taxpayer cost while adding substantial administrative, reporting, and implementation constraints that may burden smaller providers and create privacy and distribution risks.
State, local governments, and nonprofits will receive a large, dedicated federal investment (including $1 billion in FY2027 and continuing technical assistance funding) to run direct care workforce and caregiver training projects.
Direct care workers and trainees will gain expanded, standardized training, apprenticeships, and defined career pathways tied to credentials, improving job skills and promotion prospects.
Workers will receive wage protections and direct financial support during projects (minimum entry wage at least FLSA or applicable law, plus requirement that at least 5% of grant funds support workers), which can raise pay and reduce turnover.
Taxpayers will bear substantial new federal costs (notably a $1 billion FY2027 appropriation plus technical assistance funding), increasing the federal budget footprint for direct care workforce programs.
Grantees—especially small nonprofits and community providers—face significant administrative, planning, and reporting burdens (detailed applications, stakeholder consultations, data collection and annual reports) that can divert resources from direct services.
Because many grants are time-limited and a large authorization is concentrated in a single fiscal year (FY2027), programs and workers may face instability when grants end and distribution could be uneven across jurisdictions.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Creates a national technical assistance center and authorizes $1 billion in grants to recruit, train, retain, and advance direct care workers and to support family caregivers.
Official title: Award grants for the creation, recruitment, training and education, retention, and advancement of the direct care workforce and to award grants to support family caregivers.
Introduced June 24, 2026 by Timothy Michael Kaine · Last progress June 24, 2026
Creates a federal technical assistance center and a competitive grant program to recruit, train, retain, and advance the direct care workforce and to support paid and unpaid family caregivers for older adults and people with disabilities. The bill funds a national Center to develop curricula, training, career pathways, and data tools and makes $1 billion available in FY2027 for state and regional projects, with reporting, evaluation, and appropriations authority through 2036. Grants are awarded to eligible entities (states, labor organizations, community colleges, etc.) across four project categories (direct care professionals, managers, self-directed care workers, and family caregivers). The law requires stakeholder engagement, workforce planning, data collection, minimum set‑asides for career pathway projects and direct financial supports, limits on administrative costs, and independent evaluation and congressional reporting.