A New Benefit for Working Parents - 9/9/26

The Trump administration is proposing a rule that would allow some married couples with a stay-at-home parent eligible for federal child care assistance of about $9,000 per child annually. The proposal would expand eligibility under the already existing Child Care and Development Fund, a $12 billion annual program that currently only provides assistance for low- and moderate-income parents to provide subsidized child care. Under the new plan, a parent could receive this aid if... They take care of their own children at home, but their spouse must work at least 35 hours a week.

Additional federal and state rules would also apply. The policy is the top priority of Vice President Vance, who has criticized government policies that only recognize large-scale daycare centers, but don't recognize other options. But some conservatives have attacked the plan and suggested that tax cuts would be a better remedy. Conservative Michael Knowles pushed back at that criticism, however, and backed J.D. Vance's. plan. He said, if I understand the establishment conservatives correctly, we should not reform a 30-year-old entitlement program to stop incentivizing single parenthood because it would be better to abolish the entire 91-year-old welfare state, which no one pretends to think is possible.

Meanwhile, over at The Loop, Pope Leo XIV urged Christians to embrace the joyful debt of loving one another through honest correction, shared prayer, and forgiveness, a call he extended to a world wounded by war. Today is the Feast of St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit missionary who traveled to South America and dedicated his life to caring for enslaved people. I'm Josh Mercer, editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today. And while you're at it, subscribe to get The Loop in your inbox every morning. Again, that's zeal.co.