Families and children
Child care, foster care, early childhood, family leave, and the programs families rely on.
Most of what affects families day to day is decided by your state, not Congress. Child care subsidies, foster care and child protective services are state-run programs operating inside federal funding rules, so the people who can change how they work are usually in your statehouse.
Who decides this
- Congress
- Head Start, the child tax credit, federal child care and foster care funding, SNAP and WIC rules, and family leave policy.
- Your state
- Child care subsidy levels and eligibility, licensing of providers, child protective services, foster care and kinship care, and pre-K programs.
- Your city or county
- County child welfare offices, local pre-K, and school-age care.
In Congress Senate Finance · House Ways and Means · House Education and Workforce
2 open questions
Federal policy
How Should We Keep Social Security Solvent?
Social Security's trust funds are projected to run short within about a decade, which would trigger automatic benefit cuts unless Congress acts. Options include raising the payroll tax cap, changing the retirement age, adjusting benefits, or a mix. Where do you stand?
S. 2295
Should the Federal Government Subsidize Child Care?
In much of the country child care costs more than rent or in-state tuition, and federal support has stalled while waitlists grow. Some want major federal investment; others say subsidies inflate costs or crowd out family choices. Where do you stand?
Common questions
- Who runs foster care?
- Your state, and in many states the county. Federal law sets conditions on the money, but placement decisions, caseworker standards and kinship policy are state and county decisions.
- Why is child care so expensive, and who can change it?
- Both levels. Congress sets the size of the federal child care block grant; your state decides subsidy rates, who qualifies, and what providers must do to be licensed.