On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing, “Restoring Integrity: Preventing Fraud in Child Care Assistance Programs.” Committee Chair Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA), opened the proceedings by voicing concerns about fraud in child care programs, pointing to Minnesota as a “wake-up call,” and recommending safeguards against the misuse of public funds. Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) co-chaired the hearing for the Minority. In his opening remarks, he emphasized the chronically low pay of child care workers and cautioned against indiscriminately punishing children and educators in efforts to combat fraud. During testimony, Henry Wilde, Co-Founder and CEO of Acelero, Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin, underscored research on the importance and effectiveness of early childhood education. He argued that “the existence of bad actors” should not jeopardize overall funding, noting that fraud and abuse remain rare. Drawing from Wisconsin’s experience, he outlined a fraudulent scheme used by some providers and proposed three remedies: better coordination between child care licensing and subsidy systems, leveraging existing data to identify fraud patterns, and tying payments to objective quality measures. While committee members acknowledged the need for accountability, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) challenged the logic of statewide funding freezes in response to isolated fraud cases. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) shifted the conversation’s focus from fraud prevention back to the fundamental challenge of providing accessible child care for working families. Across all witnesses and Members, there was unanimity about the value of childcare and the need to protect the system from fraud. 

Access written testimony and a video of the proceedings here.