Warren, Warnock, Senators Sound Alarm As Trump Admin Worsens Child Care Affordability Crisis

“American families have long struggled to access affordable, high-quality child care, but ACF’s actions now threaten a nationwide child care crisis” Text of Letter (PDF) Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Angela Alsobrook (D-Md.) in raising their concerns to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration of Children and Families (ACF) on the Trump administration’s efforts to gut federal government child care programs, which have caused child care centers across the country to shut down and left American families and workers with few alternatives. “These actions raise fresh concerns about the extent to which the current administration is further destabilizing the country’s already fragile child care system, increasing child care costs for families and making care harder to come by,” wrote the lawmakers . During President Trump’s first year in office, the cost of child care grew “faster than overall inflation,” and the rising costs of goods have exacerbated the price of child care, impacting the cost of the school supplies and food that child care centers provide their children, as well as the cost of insuring their programs, paying their rent and utilities, and maintaining their facilities. Child care providers are being forced into a lose-lose situation: either raise the cost of tuition for families or shut down. Recently, thousands of child care centers across the country have closed, putting further strain on families’ budgets and making it difficult for families to secure a spot in a child care program in their community. Instead of addressing this problem, the Trump administration has chosen to undermine the programs and rules that increase access to affordable child care, including overhauling Head Start, eliminating resources and offices at the ACF that grantees rely on for assistance, and rolling back rules aimed at lowering costs for families and stabilizing supply. “The administration’s harmful changes and cut-first, think-later approach raise our concern that ACF shares President Trump’s view that “we can’t take care of day care” and that you are not taking the child care affordability and availability crisis seriously,” wrote the lawmakers. “Families, already contending with a higher cost of living, will struggle without protections that target affordability, and providers will struggle to offer quality services without provisions that stabilize and safeguard their wages — as evident by the growing number of providers that are being forced to close their doors as costs rise,” continued the lawmakers. In January, the senators pressed the ACF and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide answers about the threats to child care programs in rural communities amid staffing and funding cuts to the agencies. The response from the ACF did not acknowledge the child care affordability crisis and provided no information on the impact of its cuts on the accessibility of child care. The senators requested the ACF provide answers to their additional questions, including more details on child care center closures, Head Start deregulation, and changes to CCDF by no later than October 14, 2026. Senator Warren has led the fight to make child care available and affordable for working families: In June 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in announcing the next pillar of Senate Democrats’ affordability agenda: a new Senate Democratic vision to make child care more affordable, more available, and higher quality for families across the country. In May 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined the Center for American Progress’ IDEAS Conference to deliver a speech on the need for universal child care. In March 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), longtime leaders on child care, along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.), established a new working group as the latest major push in Democrats’ fight to lower costs and deliver child care for every American family. In March 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani published an op-ed in USA Today calling for the Democratic party to commit to making universal child care a central part of its platform. In February 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), along with Representative Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), led over 40 colleagues in pressing the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children & Families (ACF) on how the Trump Administration’s immigration policies are shrinking the child care workforce and driving up costs for American families. In February 2026, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Ranking Member of the Committee Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned military leaders on the impact of poor barrack conditions and inadequate child care on service member morale and readiness. In February 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) teamed up in the fight to deliver universal child care for American families. In February 2026, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered opening remarks calling for improving the quality of military barracks, better pay for child care workers so military families can have the child care support they need, and tracking the impact of Republicans’ health care cuts for service members and their families. In January 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) in announcing a new investigation into how the Trump administration’s cuts to affordable child care programs are affecting rural families. In September 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) led over forty lawmakers in reintroducing the Child Care for Every Community Act , legislation that would expand access to affordable child care to every American family, offer high-quality early education to every child, and create good jobs for our early educators. In May 2025, in a response to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) letter to the Department of Defense (DoD) demanding clarity on the department’s plans to address allegations of child abuse in its Child Development Centers (CDCs), the DoD revealed a pattern of incompetence in its oversight of child care services. ###