New Report Shows Child Care Subsidies Provide Relief for Families, Meanwhile Trump Requests $1.5 Trillion for War Budget While Costs Are Skyrocketing

Washington, D.C. - Today-as Trump proposes to slash domestic investments to help pay for a defense spending increase of roughly half a trillion dollars-U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement after a new report found the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program saves participating Washington state families over $19,000 a year on child care.

"Trump is asking Congress to increase his war budget by $500 billion dollars and even said: ''We're fighting wars. We can't take care of day care.' Well, as a former preschool teacher and mom, I think that is just absurd," said Senator Murray. "This is not a question of what's possible-it's a question of priorities. President Trump and congressional Republicans want to spend your taxpayer dollars on costly wars and golden ballrooms, and I'd like to help more families afford child care. Instead of dumping trillions of dollars into Trump's reckless wars, we could be expanding crucial programs like CCDBG-we could be saving families thousands of dollars a year on child care. Half a trillion dollars would make high-quality child care affordable for every family that needs it, and it would mean employers wouldn't have to worry about their employees missing work because they couldn't find child care. The child care crisis is holding back families and holding back our economy. But putting the kind of money Trump is talking about for war into child care instead would make a world of change for all families."

A new report has detailed how CCDBG subsidies help families in Washington state afford child care for kids under the age of five. The average cost of child care in Washington state is over $21,000 a year, or almost $1,800 per month. For families who qualify, CCDBG brings the cost of child care down to a maximum of $1,980 a year, or $165 per month for a family of three in Washington state. But, of the over 118,000 children who are eligible in Washington state to be served by CCDBG, only 15,435 kids are being served at the current funding levels-that means only 13% of kids who have families who are struggling to afford child care, are receiving support. Senator Murray has long pushed to change that and played a critical role in securing historic funding increases for the CCDBG program to help serve more families.

As Trump proposes spending $1.5 trillion on the defense budget-roughly half a trillion more than this year-raising costs on everyday essentials for working families, Senator Murray is leading Democrats in Congress to continue their push to help working people make ends meet-including by tackling the child care crisis. In the FY26 appropriations bills Senator Murray secured $8.8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program (CCDBG)-an $85 million or increase over fiscal year 2025-and $12.36 billion for Head Start, an $85 million increase over last year's funding level. Sustained annual increases of federal investments in child care and Head Start are critical in tackling the child care crisis and helping to ensure more families can find and afford the quality, affordable child care and early childhood education options they need. Senator Murray also protected funding for Preschool Development Grants, which President Trump and House Republicans pushed to eliminate.

Senator Murray is Congress' top advocate for child care, and her Child Care for Working Families Act would tackle the child care crisis head-on: ensuring families can afford the child care they need, expanding access to more high-quality options, stabilizing the child care sector, and helping ensure child care workers taking care of our nation's kids are paid livable wages. The legislation will also dramatically expand access to pre-K, and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increased wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, which Senator Murray has introduced every Congress since 2017, the typical family in America will pay no more than $15 a day for child care-with many families paying nothing at all-and no eligible family will pay more than 7% of their income on child care.

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