WASHINGTON, D.C.: Today, Tuesday, February 12, 2026, child care providers, parents, and advocates from across the country flooded the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing room to make their voices heard during a Republican-led hearing on child care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was important for members of the Committee to see our faces and hear our voices today. They need to understand that freezing funds, laying off staff at the Administration of Children and Families, and sending vigilante journalists and ICE agents to needlessly harass providers is causing real harm to real people,\u201d said Andrea Paluso, Co-Director of the Child Care for Every Family Network. <\/strong>\u201cAnd we need them to understand that the real crisis facing child care is chronic underfunding and systemic instability. Rather than manufacturing scandals and funding crises, lawmakers should address the actual problem: ensuring permanent, sufficient funding for child care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the Committee highlighted concerns about the timing and focus of the child care hearing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the first time that the HELP Committee has had a child care hearing in 988 days. May 31 2023, almost 1,000 days. And so when I heard we were having a child care hearing, I thought it was going to be \u2018let\u2019s deal with the crisis of the lack of affordable child care\u2019…. but, the hearing that we\u2019re having after 988 days is about fraud. And, I\u2019m kind of struck by that,\u201d said Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), member of the committee. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo one wants our child care system to work more than me, a former preschool teacher,\u201d said Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), member of the committee. <\/strong>\u201cWe do not have enough providers. They\u2019re not paid a living wage. They\u2019re barely keeping their doors open. And parents can barely find, let alone afford, child care. We have to solve that and I\u2019d love to have a hearing about that specific framework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notably, the witness invited by the Committee\u2019s leadership emphasized that the administration\u2019s current actions on child care are harming the sector: <\/strong>\u201cRate freezes and waitlists, which are in place in many states, severely harm working parents and their children […] I believe child care fraud is extremely rare\u2014the vast majority of providers make personal and economic sacrifices because they are committed to serving children and families\u2014and the existence of bad actors should not obscure the fundamental reality that Head Start and CCDBG need greater investment,\u201d said Henry Wilde of Accelero Early Learning.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ###<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Child Care for Every Family Network is the national movement and campaign to transform child care, representing 2,000+ child care providers and early educators, impacted families, state and national organizations, and organizers across the country. Learn more: childcareforeveryfamily.org.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON, D.C.: Today, Tuesday, February 12, 2026, child care providers, parents, and advocates from across the country flooded the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing room to make their voices heard during a Republican-led hearing on child care. \u201cIt was important for members of the Committee to see our faces and… Continue reading Child Care Providers, Parents, and Advocates Highlight Child Care Crisis at Congressional Hearing<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2145,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childcareforeveryfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/2143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childcareforeveryfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childcareforeveryfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press_releases"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childcareforeveryfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childcareforeveryfamily.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}