In committee
Stop Child Care Scams Act of 2026
Child care centers and home daycare providers found to have committed fraud would face a permanent lifetime ban from receiving federal child care subsidies and child meal program funds. States would be required to strengthen eligibility checks, investigate scams, and recover fraudulent payments from clients and providers. In addition, states that improperly pay out more than 5 percent of their federal child care grant funds for two consecutive years could lose their federal funding, and federal officials would no longer have the power to waive those financial penalties.
People affected—not determinable from the text provided; the text applies to state agencies, child care providers, and food program institutions nationwide, but provides no specific counts of individuals or entities impacted.
Fiscal magnitude—not determinable from the text provided; the bill conditions existing block grant allocations and introduces compliance penalties, but specifies no dollar appropriations, authorizations, or direct budget figures.
Reach58provisional · pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
What this bill touches.
Childcare & leave−20Federal vs. state/local+45SNAP & nutrition−12
Who it helps · who it burdens.
Who it burdens
- State child care agenciesMust establish internal controls, eligibility verification procedures, and fraud investigation processes in their state child care plans (Sec. 3); submit corrective action plans and face conditional loss of federal grant funding if improper payment rates exceed 5 percent (Sec. 5); face mandatory federal fund withholding and lose the ability to receive sanction waivers (Sec. 2, Sec. 8); submit to triennial federal reviews and extra monitoring if designated high-risk (Sec. 6); and submit annual disaggregated reports on improper payments (Sec. 10).
- Department of Health and Human ServicesMandated to investigate child care block grant fraud and permanently debar fraudulent providers (Sec. 4), loses discretion over withholding grant funds from noncompliant states and waiving sanctions (Sec. 2, Sec. 8), and must conduct three-year reviews of state performance while enforcing additional monitoring on high-risk states (Sec. 6).
- Government Accountability OfficeRequired to conduct a study on fraud prevention across federal early childhood, child care, and child nutrition programs and submit a report with recommendations to congressional committees within two years (Sec. 9).
Who opposes it
- Child care providers found to have committed fraudPermanently barred from receiving Child Care and Development Block Grant funding upon a final determination of fraud or debarment from the Child and Adult Care Food Program (Sec. 4), and permanently debarred from participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program if terminated for fraud or debarred from the child care block grant program (Sec. 7).