Oppose Repeal of Child Care Copayment Cap, and Enrollment-Based Payments

Today I’m writing to urge you to oppose the HHS and its Administration for Children and Families' proposed rule that would eliminate critical protections for families and child care providers. This proposal would repeal the Biden-era requirement capping child care copayments at 7 percent of family income and eliminate enrollment-based payment standards for early educators. Removing the 7 percent copayment cap will force families in our community to pay significantly more for child care, straining household budgets at a time when costs are already challenging. This cap ensures that child care remains affordable and accessible, allowing parents to remain in the workforce. Without it, more families, particularly mothers, will face impossible choices between paying for care and staying employed. Our local economies depend on working parents, and affordable child care is essential infrastructure that supports their participation in the labor force, and hence bolsters the economy. Awesome I also oppose the proposed elimination of enrollment-based payments as equally damaging. Enrollment-based payments, which are standard practice in the private child care market, provide providers with predictable revenue that allows them to pay staff consistently, plan budgets, and keep their doors open. Shifting to attendance-based payments creates financial unpredictability that threatens the stability of child care programs. Providers cannot operate sustainably when revenue fluctuates based on daily attendance, which varies due to illness, weather, and other factors beyond their control. Amy Matsui, vice president of child care and income security at the National Women's Law Center, accurately described this approach as taking a sledgehammer to our already fragile child care system. Child care providers are struggling to stay operational, and families are already paying too much. This rule change makes both problems worse. I ask that you publicly oppose the Trump HHS and this proposed rule and work with colleagues to prevent its implementation. I also ask you to make these proposed rules more public by calling HHS Administrators out in hearings on this foolish course of action. Every community needs stable, affordable child care, and this proposal undermines both goals. Families and providers deserve better than policies that increase costs and create financial instability. Thank you.