HR-9606-119
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 20 - 16.
Sponsored by Robert Onder (R-MO)
What it does
This bill would transfer administrative responsibility for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program — which provides child care grants to low-income parents attending college — from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services. All related personnel, funds, contracts, and records would move with the program. The Office of Management and Budget would oversee the transition and must certify that the transfer does not increase the total number of federal employees across the two agencies.
Who benefits
Low-income student parents who supporters argue would receive more coordinated services if child care is managed alongside other HHS programs (e.g., Head Start, Child Care and Development Fund). HHS, which would gain administrative authority over the program. OMB, which gains a formal oversight and certification role. Potentially, colleges and universities that already coordinate with HHS-administered child care programs and could see streamlined grant administration.
Who is hurt
Department of Education staff currently administering the CCAMPIS program, who face reassignment or displacement during the transition. Colleges and universities that have established relationships and reporting processes with the Department of Education may face administrative adjustment costs. Low-income student parents could experience service disruptions during the transition period, even with the six-month implementation window. Department of Education, which loses a program and associated resources.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that child care is fundamentally a health and human services function, and that consolidating CCAMPIS under HHS — alongside Head Start, the Child Care and Development Fund, and other family support programs — would reduce duplicative bureaucracy and create a more coherent service delivery system for low-income families. They contend that housing a child care program within an education department creates administrative fragmentation, and that aligning it with HHS's existing child care infrastructure could improve program outcomes for student parents without adding federal employees.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that CCAMPIS is specifically designed to support postsecondary enrollment and retention — an education outcome — and that moving it to HHS severs it from the higher education policy context where it operates most effectively. They contend that administrative transfers carry real transition costs and risks of service disruption for a vulnerable population (low-income student parents), and that the bill's requirement to avoid a net increase in federal employees could result in reduced staffing capacity for the program rather than genuine efficiency gains.
Constitutional context
The federal government funds CCAMPIS through its Spending Clause authority (Art. I, §8, cl. 1), attaching conditions to grants given to postsecondary institutions. This bill does not alter the program's funding structure or conditions — it only reassigns which executive department administers it — so no new constitutional question is raised. The Tenth Amendment's reservation of education to the states is not implicated beyond what already exists under the current program.
Checks and balances
The executive branch (HHS) gains administrative authority over the program; OMB gains a formal oversight and certification role; Congress retains authority through the underlying statute (Section 419N of the Higher Education Act) and through the two committees — House Education and Workforce, and Senate HELP — that receive OMB's compliance certification.
Historical precedent
The Department of Homeland Security Act of 2002 similarly transferred dozens of federal functions across agencies, establishing a legal template for inter-agency program transfers including savings provisions, personnel transfers, and OMB oversight roles that this bill closely mirrors.