WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday 4/8, a broad coalition of more than 160 national, state, and local organizations from 49 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, formally opposing his and Senator Tuberville’s (R-AL) new draft legislation. 

While Senator Cassidy and Tuberville claim this proposal would address child care fraud, in reality it would create new burdens for parents and providers, and give the Administration new and unprecedented power to withhold child care funding from states. The letter was led by the Child Care for Every Family Network (CCEFN), National Women’s Law Center, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), NAFCC, ZERO TO THREE, MomsRising, and Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).

“The Child Care and Development Block Grant is one of the most closely monitored human services programs, with states required to submit detailed plans, track eligibility, conduct regular provider inspections, conduct annual audits, and report spending to the federal government,” the coalition wrote in its letter to Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy. “[Yet] In short, this discussion draft risks denying support to children and families and increasing costs and burdens to child care providers, making it harder for them to serve families with subsidies and private-pay families, while doing nothing to strengthen our child care system.”

Specifically, the letter details harmful provisions in the proposed legislation, including:

• Ending enrollment-based payment practices, which would hurt the child care sector, weaken provider stability, reduce families’ child care options, and may lead to higher child care prices across the nation; 
• Banning U.S citizen children with immigrant parents from receiving federal child care subsidies; 
• Reducing children’s eligibility from the current 12 month minimum to only 6 months, and removing states’ flexibility to use presumptive eligibility to improve the stability of care for children;
• Punishing providers by creating a “prohibited provider” database without clear due process or fair standards; 
• Mandating surveillance measures; including by: requiring costly electronic attendance verification and surveillance tools that place an unfunded burden on small-business providers and could compromise the privacy of children and families.

The organizations urged Senator Cassidy to “withdraw this discussion draft and instead focus on child care solutions that meaningfully address America’s child care crisis for families and providers.” 

Andrea Paluso, Director of the Child Care for Every Family Network: “Right now, parents are struggling to find and afford child care, and providers are struggling to stay afloat. And yet all President Trump can tell parents is the federal government ‘can’t take care of day care’ and all Senate Republicans have done is manufacture a false fraud narrative with no substantiation. This child care proposal makes clear that Senate Republicans are not interested in addressing the very real child care crisis families and providers are facing, or delivering any real child care resources to improve the system. Instead, this proposal would just further destabilize our child care system and give the Trump Administration even more power to weaponize child care funding, as they have been doing since the start of this Administration. We will fight back with all we’ve got, and we’ll continue to send a clear message to Congress that parents and providers demand better.”

Stephanie Schmit, Director of Child Care and Early Education at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP): “At a moment when families are struggling and state budgets are squeezed, this proposal will only make matters worse. We need policies and investments that support families, not make it more difficult for them to access essential child care. We need proposals that build on the already robust mechanisms in CCDBG to maintain program integrity, not add considerable and burdensome requirements for already over-burdened states.  Families and child care providers deserve a significantly funded and equitable child care system, and this proposal would move us further away from that reality.”

Erica Phillips, Executive Director of the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC): “Family child care educators are essential to our nation’s child care system, providing flexible, trusted care for millions of working families. Policies that increase administrative burdens or create unstable payment practices place a disproportionate strain on home-based educators operating small businesses on thin margins. Child care remains central in national conversations because the need is real and urgent—but these policy proposals risk making an already fragile system even harder for families to access. Policymakers should focus on strengthening subsidy systems so family child care educators can continue serving families without unnecessary barriers.”

Amy Matsui, vice president of child care and income security at the National Women’s Law Center: “This proposal from Senators Cassidy and Tuberville will further destabilize our child care system and raise costs for families. Thanks to the Trump administration, families and child care providers are already facing unprecedented chaos and confusion over whether they will receive the federal funds they need. This proposed restructuring of CCDBG would make child care harder to find and less affordable for families, and further strain child care providers. We urge the HELP Committee to reject these proposals and instead work toward solutions that could lower costs for families.”

Daniel Hains, Chief Policy and Professional Advancement Officer, National Association for the Education of Young Children: “Congress has long worked in a bipartisan way to support investments in the Child Care and Development Block Grant that help families access the quality child care they need to work or engage in job training and support educators in offering quality care that supports children’s early development. This discussion draft moves away from that shared commitment, and would impose new and costly burdens on providers, families and states, in response to unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the program. We urge Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to listen to what supports educators and families say they need in the system, reject proposals that would make it more difficult for families to access the child care they need for their children, and to prioritize increased investments in the system to support the stability of the child care system, educators, families, and our broader economy.”

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The Child Care for Every Family Network is the national movement and campaign to transform childcare, representing 2,000+ child care providers, impacted families, state and national organizations, and organizers across the country. Learn more: childcareforeveryfamily.org.