Progressives Launch ‘Child Care for America’ Working Group Ahead of 2026 Midterms

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Patty Murray are joining forces to establish the “Child Care for America” working group, the latest Democratic push to make child care affordable and accessible, according to plans shared exclusively with NOTUS.

The group will bring together Democratic members from both sides of the Capitol to build broad, coordinated support for wide-ranging child care legislation. According to the plans shared with NOTUS, the group is writing legislation that could be ready for quick passage should Democrats retake the House and the Senate after the 2026 midterms. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bobby Scott will be the House co-leads.

Democrats have long identified rising child care costs as part of an affordability crisis and want to make inroads on the issue while they’re in the minority in Congress. Democratic candidates who won in 2025 touted proposals addressing those in the “care economy.” Democrats are betting that this push, centered on lowering costs, can deliver political momentum heading into the November elections.

“This is one of the most serious efforts we are taking on together as a group because we have to make sure that every working family can find and afford childcare,” Murray, who’s also the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS in an interview. “We want it to be something that we can grow the support and the demand [for] so that we don’t get kicked back to the bottom of the pile again.”

She added: “I’ve had it on the front burner before and somebody says ‘Not this time.’ And I’m saying ‘Not this time.’”

For both Murray and Warren, it’s personal. Murray referenced her origin story into politics, when a male legislator in 1992 in Washington state called her a “mom in tennis shoes” for her efforts in saving a preschool program.

Warren referenced her story in an interview with NOTUS, which she’s told repeatedly, about her Aunt Bee helping her with child care at a time she needed most.

“There are families all around this country for whom child care is a bigger cost than the mortgage. … It makes no sense,” Warren said. “As a nation we invest in infrastructure so that people can go to work and businesses can flourish. Child care is infrastructure.”

The group is going to focus on several principles: affordability, with family costs capped at no more than 7% of income and free care for the lowest-income families; child care as public infrastructure, as Warren puts it; and boosting worker pay, ensuring child care workers receive living wages, benefits, paid leave and retirement support.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is part of the bicameral progressive working group focused on developing child care legislation Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

The remaining principles call for high quality and accountability, with the federal government covering at least 90% of the investment, as well as accessibility for families with nontraditional hours, children with disabilities and non-English speakers. The principles also include a goal to rapidly scale up supply and address the immediate affordability crisis.

On how the costs could be offset for child care programs, Warren responded: “We’re still working on a lot of the details.”

But she referenced the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, passed along partisan lines last year by Republicans, as a reference point for where Democrats and Republicans differ on these issues.

“The Republicans just handed out $2 trillion dollars in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, and not a penny for our children. Ultimately, the questions here are about values. Show me your budget, and I’ll know your values,” she added.

Whether Democrats are able to regain control of either chamber remains to be seen, but Democrats are optimistic they can make this a major issue.

“The cost of child care has become so prohibitively expensive for so many families, and even people who are considering a family,” Ocasio-Cortez told NOTUS. “Having a child shouldn’t be a privilege, it shouldn’t be a luxury, it should be a choice that should be accessible to everyone, and child care is a part of that.”