On March 5, the House Education & Workforce Committee passed eight bills that would amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, most of which would create additional requirements for states and give the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary (hereafter “Secretary”) more authority to withhold child care funds from states. Six of the bills described below passed along party lines, with no Democrats voting to pass them out of committee. Two bills received unanimous approval from both Republicans and Democrats. All Republicans voted in favor of all eight bills.

The legislations’ consideration comes after the Trump Administration alleged fraud in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) in Minnesota, as well as in California, Colorado, Illinois and New York. In letters transmitted to states, the Administration did not provide evidence to back up their assertions of fraud. Likewise, during the hearings, Members of Congress did not offer specific evidence of fraud in CCDF. In some oversight hearings, Members of Congress have referred to fraud in other programs when citing examples or costs to the taxpayer. Further, the mark-up occurred after the the President announced a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union, in which he claimed that abuses in social services programs present a threat to taxpayer integrity and a justification for discouraging certain immigrant populations from entering the country.

Most of the bills are targeted at reducing fraud, which is referenced in CCDF regulations as “intentional program violations.” Several of the bills also reference “improper payments” which is a calculation of funds that are used for purposes that are not permissible under CCDF or the state could not provide sufficient documentation to demonstrate that funds were used for allowable purposes (also called the “error rate”). Each state is required to report improper payments to the Office of Child Care (OCC) every three years. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, the improper payment rate in CCDF was 3.55%. Analysis by OCC finds that 40% of the error rate is attributable to missing or insufficient documentation. The second most common errors were incorrect income calculations and an incorrect family co-payment.

The legislation that passed the Committee includes:

1. Child Care Payment Integrity and Fraud Accountability Act of 2026 (H.R. 7720): This bill proposes two changes to the CCDBG Act. First, it would provide broad authority for HHS to reduce payments to states for “fraudulent payments” as deemed necessary by the Secretary. Second, it would add a new reporting requirement obligating states to submit annual reports to the Secretary identifying improper payments by categories, including suspected and verified fraud, non-fraudulent overpayments, underpayments, and technical errors. Current law requires states to report improper payments every three years, unless the state is considered high-risk based on its previous improper payment rate. Current law also gives the Secretary the discretion whether to withhold or reduce funds to states on the basis of non-compliance with any parts of the CCDBG Act, but HHS has never applied a monetary penalty for non-compliance.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 0

2. CRACKDOWN Act of 2026 (H.R. 7721): This bill would require states to establish a corrective action plan if their overpayment rate exceeds 5% of total CCDF funds (current law requires states to have a corrective action plan if the overpayment rate exceeds 10%). The bill would also make a state ineligible for CCDF if it exceeds a 5% overpayment for two consecutive years, unless the Secretary determines the state can reduce its improper payment rate to below 5% or make significant progress on its corrective action plan.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 0

3. Child Care Integrity Monitoring Act of 2026 (H.R. 7722): This bill would require HHS to conduct reviews of each state every three years to assess audit findings, progress on corrective action plans, and any noncompliance with the state plan. Current practice is for the Office of Child Care to monitor every three years, and the bill codifies this practice as a statutory requirement. The bill adds a new designation of “high risk,” which would be applied to states at HHS’s discretion and subject them to more frequent monitoring as determined by the Secretary.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 0

4. Safeguarding Taxpayer Dollars in Child Care Act of 2026 (H.R. 7723): This bill would amend both the CCDBG Act and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (which authorizes the Child and Adult Care Food Program, or CACFP) and require that a child care provider who is determined to have committed fraud be permanently debarred from receiving either CCDF or CACFP.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 0

5. No Waivers for Fraud Act of 2026 (H.R. 7724): This bill would amend the CCDBG Act to eliminate the Secretary’s existing statutory authority to waive sanctions imposed on states for improper payments. Under current law, the Secretary has discretion to waive such sanctions. The bill removes all references to sanction waivers from the relevant provisions, effectively making sanctions non-waivable once imposed.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 0

6. Stop Child Care Fraud Act of 2026 (H.R. 7725): This bill would add new requirements to the state CCDF plan, which each state must complete every three years. HHS reviews plans for compliance, directs states to amend any areas of non-compliance, and approves them once finalized. The bill would require states to detail their internal controls for program integrity, their processes for investigating and recovering fraudulent payments, their procedures for imposing sanctions, and how they use data across state and local agencies with oversight of child care providers. The state plan template already requires States to report on their internal controls, risk assessment, and fraud prevention, but they are not included as required reporting elements in the statute.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 15

7. Closing the Provider Fraud Gap Act of 2026 (H.R. 7677): This bill would not amend the CCDBG Act law but instead direct the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study within two years of enactment examining the effectiveness of fraud prevention measures across federal early care and education and child nutrition programs, including Head Start, CACFP, and CCDBG. The GAO would further be directed to assess whether federal data collection is sufficient to detect fraud and to submit legislative or regulatory recommendations to the relevant congressional committees.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 15

8. No Funds for Repeat Child Care Violations Act of 2026 (H.R. 7726): The current CCDBG Act requires states to repay the federal government for any funds spent on improper or unauthorized payments. In addition, current law allows the Secretary to impose additional financial penalties on recipients of CCDF. This bill would change the language that references additional financial penalties, requiring HHS to impose sanctions and allowing those sanctions to include permanently disqualifying recipients from receiving CCDF. Disqualification would not be not limited to parties that commit fraud; any improper or unauthorized payment could lead to sanctions and disqualification.
   
   Republicans voting in favor: 19
   Democrats voting in favor: 0

The bills now move to the floor for a vote by the full House of Representatives. The bills have yet to be introduced in the Senate. However, several committees in the Senate have recently held hearings relating to oversight in social services programs, which may indicate an interest in legislating in that area.

If any of these bills are advanced by the House and introduced in the Senate, they would be subject to the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass. It is not yet clear how much support these measures would garner in the Senate, as they would need bipartisan support.