Sign-On Letter: Child Care Orgs Oppose House Bills to Destabilize Child Care System

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Child Care for Every Family Network, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Women’s Law Center, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and the National Association of Family Child Care led a broad coalition of 200 national, state, and local organizations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in sending a letter to members of Congress urging them to reject a package of bills—the “Stop Child Care Scams Act of 2026”—that would further destabilize our child care system. 

These bills would deny support to children and families while doing absolutely nothing to strengthen our child care system or help the millions of families that are struggling to find and afford the child care they need. 

As the letter outlines, if passed, these bills would “give the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unprecedented authority to withhold all CCDBG [Child Care and Development Block Grant] funding from states without cause or due process, bar child care providers for nonfraudulent activity, and burden states with costly activities that don’t improve program integrity. There is no evidence of significant or widespread fraud in the federal child care program. These bills will be detrimental to child care access as they will result in fewer families receiving child care assistance from the CCDBG program, fewer child care providers willing to serve families with child care subsidies, and further destabilize America’s child care sector, which is already stretched too thin.”

Specifically, the letter details how the bills would:

• Create costly hurdles for providers to jump through if they want to receive state or federal child care funding
• Give the government new power to freeze 100% of a state’s child care funding for administrative errors 
• Severely punish child care providers for reporting errors, including permanently barring providers from applying for federal child care funding for something as simple as a missing signature 
• Make child care harder to find and afford for everyone by destabilizing subsidized funding and making it much harder for providers to take public funding, which many centers and providers that serve private pay families rely on to keep their doors open

Anali Alegria, Director of Federal Advocacy for the Child Care for Every Family Network: “Every day in this country, parents struggle to find child care and providers heroically fight to keep their doors open. But instead of helping families and early childhood educators by addressing the child care crisis, Republican leaders in Congress are advancing a suite of bills that would further undermine access to care. We see clearly these bills for what they really are—a targeted attack on the Black and brown women, many of them immigrants, who make up the majority of the child care workforce. And we will make sure every member of Congress knows we demand real investment and solutions, not a ‘fraud’ witch hunt designed to hurt already struggling providers and families.”

Wendy Chun-Hoon, Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Policy: “Let’s be clear that these bills and the broader fraud narrative are aimed at undermining immigrant child care providers and dismantling the existing, yet very fragile, child care sector. We need to get our priorities straight and address the root causes of the child care crisis we are facing. What would actually create the child care system this country so desperately needs is to invest real federal dollars into the sector and center the needs of children, families, and child care providers.”

Whitney Pesek, Senior Director of Federal Child Care Policy at the National Women’s Law Center: “At a time when women and families are stretching their budgets to afford child care, members of the Republican Party are trying to make it harder for federal child care funding to reach those who need it the most. We are proud to join other child care advocates across the country in opposing the House’s proposed bills, which will make it even harder for families to afford the care that they desperately need.”

Erica Phillips, Executive Director of the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC): “Family child care educators are already working tirelessly to meet the needs of children and families in an increasingly fragile child care system. Any legislation that imposes unnecessary penalties and administrative burdens on educators will only reduce access to care and make it harder for families to find the child care they need. Congress should vote no on this bill and instead focus on solutions that support family child care educators and the children and families who depend on family child care every day.” 

Daniel Hains, Chief Policy and Professional Advancement Officer (NAEYC): “Early childhood educators in programs across the country are working every day to provide high quality experiences that meet the needs of young children and their families, under increasingly challenging conditions. These educators and families need support and investment from Congress, not additional burdens and barriers. We urge Members on both sides of the aisle to reject this legislation that would make it more difficult for programs to serve children and families, and to instead work together to prioritize much-needed investments in child care and early learning.” 

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