Senator Alsobrooks Forces Vote Capping Child Care Costs at 7% of Income

April 23, 2026

WASHINGTON, DC - During the Senate vote-a-rama - an all-night marathon of amendment votes on the Senate Republicans' budget resolution to fund ICE and CPB - Senator Alsobrooks (D-Md.) forced a vote on her amendment, #5294, which would ensure that child care is finally affordable for working families. Federal guidelines suggest child care is considered affordable when it accounts for about seven percent of a household's income. This amendment would have ensured that no family pays more than seven percent of their income on child care. Republicans voted it down.

WATCH ALSOBROOKS' SPEECH ON THE FLOOR HERE

Senator Alsobrooks also filed the following amendments:

• An amendment that would direct the Senate to work to reduce gas prices.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to provide tariff refunds specifically for small businesses.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to prevent the repeal of prescription drug reforms that lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors and families.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to prevent cuts to the National Institutes of Health's biomedical research that would raise health care costs, delay treatment breakthroughs, and undermine efforts to cure chronic disease.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to prevent harmful reorganizations at the Department of Health and Human Services that would raise costs and weaken the federal response to substance use, health disparities, and public health emergencies.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in order to do its job to lower prices for consumers.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to prevent further harmful federal workforce reductions that would threaten public safety, public health, the economy, or the national security of the United States.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to prohibit attacks on federal employees by protecting legally binding collective bargaining agreements.
• An amendment that would direct the Senate to restrict Pentagon funding, such that the food being served to top Pentagon officials in the Pentagon Executive Dining Facilities would need to be the same as the food served to junior enlisted service members serving aboard U.S. aircraft carriers in the Middle East, for as long as President Trump's illegal, unauthorized war against Iran continues.

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