States must stop child care fraud or lose federal money.

What it does

The bill requires states to find and stop fraud in child care subsidy programs. States must set up systems to catch fraud. States must ban providers who commit fraud from getting federal money. If a state has too many wrong payments, it must fix the problem. States that fail to improve lose funding.

Who it affects

Families using child care subsidies benefit from less fraud. States and child care providers must follow stricter rules and face penalties.

One thing to notice

States that do not fix high fraud rates may lose federal money. This could reduce child care access in those states.

From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.

Where it stands

• Feb 26, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Feb 26, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
• Mar 5, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
• Mar 5, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 20 - 15”
• Jun 3, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 217 - 207 (Roll no. 198).”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

6 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 6 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.

Those reports show $1,181,100 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 43 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.

More groups named this bill than 82% of bills with any report.

Mary Miller, who sponsored the bill, received $154,130 from PACs for the 2026 election.

• American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees — $630,000 in 1 report
• Service Employees International Union Ctw-clc — $300,000 in 1 report
• Heritage Action for America — $140,000 in 1 report
• National Women's Law Center Action Fund — $75,000 in 1 report
• Center for American Progress Action Fund — $30,000 in 1 report

Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.

Words to know

• fraud — Lying or cheating to get money or benefits you should not get.
• subsidy — Money the government gives to help pay for something, like child care.
• lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
• PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
• sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.