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To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to require States to make payments to child care providers based on verified attendance in child care programs, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act to change how states reimburse child care providers participating in the federal child care assistance program. Currently, payments may be based on enrollment; this bill requires states to instead base payments on verified attendance, using attendance records or other reasonable verification methods. The legislation also clarifies that states are not required to make advance payments to providers and may instead reimburse them after child care services have been provided.
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)
- Sen. Cruz, Ted [R-TX] (R-TX)
3 cosponsors
- Sen. Hagerty, Bill [R-TN] (R-TN)
- Sen. Lee, Mike [R-UT] (R-UT)
- Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL] (R-FL)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Ted Cruz’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $4,424,745
- ENTREPRENEUR $458,096
- RDV CORPORATION $39,600
- AMERICAN AIRLINES $29,632
- BLACKSTONE $27,400
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Ted Cruz → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Feb 12, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
- Feb 12, 2026 Introduced in Senate
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.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 12, 2026
Mr. Cruz (for himself, Mr. Scott of Florida, and Mr. Lee) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to require States to make payments to child care providers based on verified attendance in child care programs, 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 “Payment Integrity Act”.
SEC. 2. PAYMENT PRACTICES.
Section 658E of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858c) is amended—
(1) in subsection (c)(2), by adding by striking subparagraph (S) and inserting the following:
“(S) Attendance-based billing.—The plan shall include an assurance that the lead agency will provide payment under this subchapter to a child care provider based on verified attendance, rather than enrollment alone, in the program of the provider, and will conduct that verification through the use of attendance records or another reasonable verification method.”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
“(e) Timing of Payment.—Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to require a lead agency to make a payment to a child care provider prior to the provision of child care services. The lead agency may make a payment to such a provider under this subchapter after the provider’s provision of child care services.”. <all>
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