Sponsors (4)
Introduced November 25, 2025 by Hillary Scholten · Last progress November 25, 2025
The bill subsidizes and expands access to child care in participating States—reducing costs for many families and supporting states and employers—while requiring federal funding, carrying per-State caps and administrative burdens, and potentially excluding the lowest-income children or shifting costs onto workers.
Parents of eligible children will pay less out-of-pocket for child care because pilot grants reimburse a share of eligible costs and require employer contributions.
Eligible children in participating States gain expanded access to subsidized child care during the pilot, improving affordability and availability.
Federal grants (up to $250M/year) and technical assistance reduce state budget risk and support implementation, lowering financial barriers for states to run the pilot.
Low-income families and current CCDBG recipients may be excluded because the pilot excludes children already receiving CCDBG-funded care and limits eligibility to families above state CCDBG thresholds up to 300%.
Taxpayers bear the program cost — up to $250 million per year — which could crowd out other federal priorities.
The $20 million per-State cap and overall program time limits may prevent meeting high demand, limiting how many families can be served in large or high-need States.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a competitive 5-year pilot for up to 10 States to test employer-employee-State-Federal "tri-share" cost-sharing for child care with grants, reporting, and an independent evaluation.
Creates a federal pilot program that tests a "tri-share" model for paying child care costs in which parents, employers, State lead agencies, and the Federal Government share eligible child care expenses. The Secretary of Health and Human Services may select up to 10 States to run the pilot for up to five years, provide grants tied to a historical FMAP rate, limit administrative reimbursements, require State applications showing employer participation and family protections, allow limited federal waivers, and require quarterly reporting and an independent evaluation with a final report to Congress.