Republican Bernie Moreno floats gutting “all” government investments for child care

Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno said he would support cutting all federal funding for child care in the United States.

Moreno, a Republican, is challenging incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown. A new Washington Post poll shows Brown leading Moreno by a single percentage point.

On Oct. 14, Moreno held a town hall event in Steubenville, OH. An attendee, who identified herself as an Ohio mother, asked Moreno if he would support investments in child care that would enable parents to return to work and thrive economically.

“I’m a big believer in states’ rights,” Moreno said. “I think the federal government needs to do a lot less and move all, as much as possible to the states, because the states can be a laboratory for democracy where different communities are doing different things in the United States of America.” 

The attendee asked Moreno to clarify if he opposed government investments in child care.

“What I’m saying is that I don’t support the federal government coming in and trying to solve every problem,” he said. “Those problems are better solved by state government and county government.”

More than half of Ohio’s child care funding comes from Child Care Development Block Grant, a federal program. Despite this, a Family Voices Project Report found that nearly 60% of Ohio families said child care was still too expensive. Eliminating these grants would likely make the situation worse.

A Policy Matters report found that 39% of Ohioans live in a child care desert, where services are either too expensive or nonexistent. This is especially true in rural areas.

Brown, by contrast, has supported increased federal funding for child care. In 2021, he authored the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act, which sought to help child care providers expand and upgrade their services. Republicans opposed the bill.

In 2023, Brown introduced the Expanding Childcare in Rural America Act, which would provide federal funds to help child care providers operate in rural areas, particularly farm communities. The bill has bipartisan support and is still awaiting a committee vote.

A Moreno campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.