Lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill are again using the annual defense policy bill to advance a host of suggestions to improve military child care, building on years of effort to address one of the Defense Department’s most persistent quality-of-life issues. Military families continue to struggle with long waitlists, rising prices and limited options for care on base and in the surrounding communities — a problem senior leaders acknowledge majorly undermines military readiness and retention. Here are three proposals in the House and Senate drafts of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act that could move the needle if they earn congressional approval:

The House would let DoD help child care providers grow their facilities to accommodate more of the littlest customers. 

The department could offer grants to cover up to 75% of the cost of an expansion, as long as at least half of the new spots are offered to infants and toddlers. The five-year pilot program would give money to at least 10 providers in areas with high child care costs or where care is scarce. Providers elsewhere could also receive grants at the defense secretary’s discretion.

It’s unclear who would qualify for federal funds, whether in-home daycares or privately run centers off base. If the provision is enacted and a funded pilot succeeds, lawmakers could opt to broaden its scope and make the program permanent. 

Another solution may lie in joining forces within government. The Senate bill would create a path for the Defense Department to staff the military’s child development centers with teachers from other federal agencies, which could get more kids off of daycare waitlists and give them more individualized attention.

The House also signaled it’s open to letting military installations find more daycare capacity via pacts with other public institutions.

“Joint Base Langley-Eustis is exploring the use of an Intergovernmental Support Agreement authority to supplement on-installation child care capacity by partnering with a state university,” the committee said of the Army-Air Force base near Newport News, Virginia. “Utilizing this authority may enable Child Development Centers to stabilize staffing, expand operational capacity and reduce wait lists.”

Lawmakers are calling for a report by the end of March 2027 on how those agreements could address child care shortages.

Senators are urging DoD to standardize how it collects and reports data on its child care centers, workforce and waitlists, rather than leaving it fragmented across each of the armed forces. That could reveal new insights into how those facilities are used, how many families need financial aid, staffing needs, unmet demand for spots and more. Lawmakers are also asking for periodic reports on trends in the data and how to address them.

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