Stop Child Care Scams Act of 2026

Enumerated powers · passes

Federal child-care grants and conditions on those grants rest on Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, the Spending Clause, which authorizes Congress to spend for the general welfare. Conditioning Child Care and Development Block Grant funds on substantial compliance is a classic conditional-spending measure, and making an existing discretionary sanction mandatory does not expand federal power beyond that grant relationship.

Bill of Rights · passes

The bill imposes funding sanctions on state grantees, not on private speech, religion, arms, searches, or other protected rights. No provision authorizes search, seizure, compelled testimony, or restriction of First Amendment activity. No Amendment among the first ten is implicated.

Individual liberty · passes

The bill directs sanctions at state governments that misuse grant funds. It restricts no individual's decisions regarding person, property, speech, labor, or belief, and imposes no mandate on families or providers. Any burden falls on a state grantee that voluntarily accepted federal funds with stated conditions.

Decentralization · passes

Child care itself can be and routinely is handled by individuals, families, local providers, and states, and this bill does not displace that. It only conditions voluntary federal grant funds under the Child Care and Development Block Grant and converts a discretionary sanction into a mandatory one. It adds no new federal regulatory program, does not commandeer states under the Tenth Amendment, and states may decline the funds. Decision-making stays at the lowest practical level.

Due process and takings · passes

No fines, criminal penalties, or seizures of private property are created. The sanction is disqualification from future federal grant funds after an ACF finding of substantial noncompliance, under the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause framework. Grant conditions provide notice through statute, and existing administrative procedures supply review before sanctions. No Takings Clause taking of private property for public use occurs.