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Military Spouse Employment and Child Care Readiness Act
To direct the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress on the workforce, readiness, and policy challenges associated with military child care and military child development centers, and for other purposes.
Summary
- Requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to Congress within 120 days assessing workforce and readiness challenges at military child care and child development centers.
- Report must analyze the current military child development center workforce, including the percentage of employees who are military spouses.
- Report must assess feasibility of increasing license and certification transferability for military spouses relocating with service members and vacancy rates at military child care facilities.
- Report must evaluate the potential to expand military child development centers if fully staffed and assess feasibility of allowing military spouses to provide home-based childcare under military supervision.
- Report must include recommendations for attracting and retaining military spouses in child care positions through professional development, stipends, and flexible scheduling.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Veronica Escobar’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $13,980
- INVARIANT $10,100
- HUNT COMPANIES INC. $9,900
- TRI-STATE COSMETOLOGY INSTITUTE $9,100
- WESTSTAR BANK $8,850
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Veronica Escobar → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jul 22, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services. · house
- Jul 22, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 22, 2026
Ms. Escobar introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress on the workforce, readiness, and policy challenges associated with military child care and military child development centers, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Military Spouse Employment and Child Care Readiness Act”.
SEC. 2. REPORT ON STRENGTHENING THE MILITARY CHILD CARE WORKFORCE.
(a) In General.—Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report assessing workforce, readiness, and policy challenges associated with military child care and military child development centers.
(b) Contents.—The report under subsection (a) shall include the following:
(1) An analysis of the current workforce of military child development centers, including—
(A) the percentage of employees who are military spouses; and
(B) the percentage of employees who are spouses of retired or separated members of the Armed Forces.
(2) A feasibility assessment of increasing the transferability of licenses or certifications for military spouses employed at military child development centers when accompanying a service member on a permanent change of station.
(3) An assessment of vacancy rates across military child development centers and the reasons for such vacancies.
(4) An assessment of the number of additional children who could be served by military child development centers if such centers were fully staffed.
(5) A feasibility assessment of permitting military spouses residing in on-post housing to provide childcare within their homes under a supervisory program coordinated by a military child development center.
(6) Recommendations for incentives to attract and retain military spouses in the military child care workforce, including—
(A) professional development opportunities;
(B) stipend or subsidy programs; and
(C) flexible scheduling options.
(c) Congressional Defense Committees Defined.—In this section, the term “congressional defense committees” has the meaning given that term in section 101(a)(16) of title 10, United States Code. <all>
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