Politics

National Women's Law Center Slams Reported Plan to Shift Child Care Funds Toward Stay-at-Home Parents

By Today News Hours Editorial Desk

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has criticized a reported Trump-Vance administration proposal that would overhaul the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), redirecting funding away from families who need child care to work or attend school toward married couples with a stay-at-home parent.

According to a New York Times report cited by NWLC, the draft policy represents the latest step in what the organization describes as a pronatalist, patriarchal agenda aimed at discouraging women's participation in public life and disadvantaging single mothers by promoting a narrow definition of "traditional families."

Amy Matsui, vice president for child care and income security at NWLC, said the proposal would make it more difficult for women to remain in the workforce. She noted that CCDF is already significantly underfunded, currently serving only one in seven eligible children, and said it would be "outrageous" to divert funds from families struggling to afford child care toward married couples with a stay-at-home parent, especially while hundreds of thousands of families remain on child care waiting lists nationwide.

Matsui warned that the proposal would destabilize an already strained child care system, disproportionately harming single mothers, families of color, and low-income households, along with child care providers and early childhood educators. She added that this would occur at a time when existing work reporting requirements are already reducing access to basic assistance programs.

Matsui said families should be able to care for their children in whatever way works best for them, and characterized the proposal as an attempt to divide families who do not conform to Vice President J.D. Vance's vision of family structure. She argued that if the administration genuinely wanted to support families, it would increase investment in child care, establish a national paid family and medical leave program, expand the Child Tax Credit to make it fully refundable, and restore health care and nutrition assistance programs.

Matsui also pointed out that the timing of the proposal's disclosure, just before Labor Day, underscores what she called the administration's disregard for working women.

NWLC said it is leading efforts to oppose the administration's actions affecting the child care system and to highlight how these actions align with its broader pronatalist agenda. The organization has also published a timeline documenting what it describes as the administration's attacks on the child care system through funding freezes and other administrative measures it considers unlawful.