Ranking Member Scott Slams Extreme Bill to Make Child Care More Expensive, Harder to Find

Ranking Member Scott Slams Extreme Bill to Make Child Care More Expensive, Harder to Find

WASHINGTON - Today, Ranking Member Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, House Committee on Education and Workforce, spoke in opposition to H.R. 7762, the Stop Child Care Scams Act.

Watch Ranking Member Scott's remarks on YouTube.

Here is a transcript of his remarks:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 7726 because we know that child care is not a luxury - it is a necessity for millions of American families. Yet many communities struggle with skyrocketing child care costs, if they can find any child care at all. Our economy loses an estimated $122 billion every year due to child care shortages. That is a policy failure.

"The bill before us does nothing to reduce child care costs, increase supply, or improve conditions for providers - and it doesn't even reduce fraud. But instead, it creates uncertainty and red tape for states and providers. And while the supporters will be discussing the title of the bill, they're not going to be discussing the substance.

"I support efforts to prevent fraud in government programs, but this bill doesn't do that. States are already required to report error rates and undergo compliance reviews of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDGB) every three years. This bill would require states to triple their reporting obligations, diverting CCDBG dollars away from families by increasing administrative costs. More reporting does not reduce fraud.

"H.R. 7726 is also extremely vague. It would allow the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary to designate states as 'high risk' and subject them to additional monitoring, without defining what additional monitoring or 'high risk' means, and it provides no additional funding to support these new responsibilities.

"Furthermore, it expands situations where the state may be in noncompliance, opening the door for this legislation to be weaponized to withhold funding from an entire state that the Trump Administration wants to punish. The bill also mandates permanent debarment of providers found guilty of fraud, regardless of mitigating circumstances, and it is unclear who gets debarred. Is it the individual who was involved, or could it be the entire franchise operating in multiple states? In many communities, permanently removing even one provider could leave families without options for child care. Furthermore, debarment from the child care program requires debarment from the Child and Adult Care Food Program, so innocent families could lose access to food as well as child care.

"This legislation fails to stop fraud and instead imposes needless red tape and bureaucracy on communities that are already strapped for resources. For those reasons, Mr. Speaker, I oppose the bill and reserve the balance of my time."

To read a fact sheet on H.R. 7726, Stop Child Care Scams Act, click here.

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