H.R. 9993: Rise Up for Child Care Act of 2026

This bill would substantially expand federal support for child care through a program in the Social Security Act.

What it would change

• Creates a child care guarantee for certain families. States receiving these funds would have to ensure child care services are available for:
  • people receiving assistance under the relevant state program, and
  • former recipients for up to 24 months after they leave the program.
• Removes current state funding caps. The bill would eliminate certain limits on how much a state can receive or use under the program, which would make the funding structure less restricted.
• Makes the program open-ended. Instead of being limited to a fixed annual amount, the bill would authorize whatever funds are needed each year to carry out the child care program.
• Changes federal matching rules for home-based child care. For state spending meant to raise wages and benefits for workers in home-based child care settings, the federal share would be set at 75% for those extra expenditures.

Support for home-based child care

The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to study the effects of the new home-based child care wage-and-benefit funding rule. The department would also maintain an ongoing research portfolio on the topic and report the findings to Congress each Congress.

For the research work, the bill says the department should give priority to hiring or retaining career civil servants with experience in:

• the Department of Health and Human Services,
• discretionary grant programs, and
• federal grants, child care programs, or means-tested public assistance programs.

Funding

The bill provides $20 million per fiscal year for the required study and research activities.

Relevant Companies

None found