Federal Policy and Advocacy

ECEC Legislative Priorities for the 119th Congress

The Early Care and Education Consortium (ECEC) is a non-profit alliance of leading multi-site child care providers, key state child care associations, and premier educational service providers. ECEC’s mission is to champion high-quality early care and education for all children across America.

ECEC advocates for federal and state policies that expand equitable access to high-quality child care, strengthen the early education workforce, and support a sustainable mixed-delivery system that brings quality to scale. As Congress considers policies that affect families, providers, and the broader economy, ECEC is focused on advancing solutions that ensure more children can access safe, affordable, and high-quality early learning opportunities. Below are ECEC’s primary federal priorities for the 119th Congress.

CCDBG Appropriations

ECEC advocates each year for the highest possible funding levels for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the primary federal program helping low-income working families access child care for children ages 0-13 while supporting early development. ECEC members play a critical role in expanding access: nationwide, our providers serve more than 135,000 children through CCDBG each day, and roughly half of member centers participate in the program.

While recent bipartisan funding increases—including an additional $85 million in FY2026—represent meaningful progress, CCDBG remains significantly underfunded. Funding has not kept pace with the rising cost of care, limiting how many families can be served; as of 2024, fewer than 13% of eligible children received assistance, and in 17 states, CCDBG reaches 10% or fewer of eligible children.

Even with funding increases, the number of children served fell from 1.7 million in 2010 to 1.314 million in 2021, and many states still maintain long waitlists for subsidized care. ECEC supports sustained, bipartisan investments in CCDBG so more families—particularly those in underserved communities—can access high-quality child care.

CCDBG Reauthorization and Reform

ECEC supports efforts to reauthorize and modernize CCDBG, which has not been reauthorized since 2014. Updating the statute is essential to strengthen the program, improve access, and better reflect the realities facing families and providers today.

In the 119th Congress, ECEC is championing the bipartisan Child Care Modernization Act (S.2828), introduced by Senators Deb Fischer (R‑NE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D‑NY), Susan Collins (R‑ME), and John Hickenlooper (D‑CO). Among other provisions, the legislation:

Expands eligibility to additional children, providers, and eligible activities
Supports states in strengthening mixed-delivery child care systems
Requires the use of a cost estimation model to better align subsidy rates with the true cost of care
Establishes new supply and facilities grants to expand child care capacity

ECEC continues to urge Congress to work toward a bipartisan reauthorization that expands equitable access, strengthens the supply of child care, and ensures the program works effectively for families and providers.

Child Care Tax Incentives

As part of the 2025 budget reconciliation process, ECEC successfully advocated for the expansion of three key child care tax incentives—the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit (Sec. 45F), the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), and the Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP)—in the final One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1).

Limited access to high-quality child care affects families across the income spectrum. Many middle-income working families struggle to afford the care they need, and the expanded CDCTC and DCAP help offset more of those costs. We support a doubling of the CDCTC, in line with the temporary increase provided under the American Rescue Plan Act.

The expansion of Section 45F increases the value of the credit and broadens eligibility, enabling more businesses and child care providers to participate. This policy helps increase child care supply, combat child care deserts, and support employers seeking to recruit and retain workers.

ECEC continues to support policies that further strengthen these incentives, increase maximum credit amounts, and encourage greater participation by families and employers.

Child Nutrition

ECEC supports improvements to child nutrition programs that help ensure children in care receive healthy meals and snacks each day. In particular, ECEC advocates for enhancements to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), including:

Higher reimbursement rates that better reflect food costs
An additional reimbursable meal or snack for children in full-day care
Simplified reporting and streamlined program requirements
Improvements to the Serious Deficiency process to reduce unnecessary provider burden

ECEC also supports policies that strengthen equity in CACFP participation, including allowing family child care providers to receive reimbursement for meals served to their own children and eliminating the two-tier reimbursement system.

In the 119th Congress, ECEC has endorsed the Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act (S.1420 / H.R.2859) and the Early Childhood Nutrition Improvement Act (S.1447 / H.R.1332).

Early Educator Workforce

A strong early education workforce is essential to ensuring families can access high-quality child care. Without qualified educators and caregivers, parents cannot work, and children cannot benefit from stable early learning environments.

ECEC’s federal agenda for the 119th Congress focuses on expanding equitable access to high‑quality child care, strengthening the early education workforce, and supporting policies that allow providers to scale quality and meet the needs of working families.

ECEC supports policies that strengthen the early childhood workforce pipeline and improve recruitment and retention. Key priorities include expanding apprenticeships, increasing access to professional development, and creating financial incentives that support educators entering and remaining in the field. ECEC has also advocated for expanding eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to include employees working at for-profit child care programs, ensuring equitable access to workforce supports across the mixed-delivery system.

Additional workforce proposals supported by ECEC include:

Wage-to-skill matching initiatives
Competitive grants for states, localities, Tribes, and Tribal organizations to implement or expand educator pay supplements
Student loan repayment programs for early educators
Grants to support individuals pursuing early childhood credentials

In the 119th Congress, ECEC has endorsed the bipartisan Child Care Workforce Act (S.847 / H.R.1826) and the Child Care Workforce Development Act (H.R.3273).