Married Stay-at-Home Parents (SAHPs) caring for children could become eligible for up to $9,000 per child annually in federal assistance if a draft proposal reportedly now under consideration in the Trump administration ­— with vigorous encouragement from Vice President JD Vance — becomes law.

But Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is waving a yellow flag at the draft proposal because it simply initiates yet another tax-paid welfare program (admittedly pulling from already-existing funding) on top of the hundreds the federal government is already operating despite growing evidence of incredibly widespread waste, fraud, and corruption, especially in states like California, New York, and Minnesota.

“I think kids do better if they are at home with their moms and dads, having parents at home, that’s a very positive move. However, the mechanism by which we support that matters. Direct payments, I think, are problematic. We should have learned our lessons through the COVID pandemic payments that we see that are ripe with corruption,” Perkins told The Washington Stand.

The draft proposal would make married SAHPs eligible for relief under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) a program first launched in 1990 as a block grant under President George H.W. Bush. The program was expanded to its current funding and regulatory structure by the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. The CCDF is administered through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The proposal was first reported September 5 by The New York Times.

The primary goal of the CCDF program has always been to assist working and lower income working families to obtain childcare, while the proposal now being reviewed would expand eligibility to families in which one spouse works and the other focuses on raising their children at home.

The proposal reportedly includes at least these provisions, any of which are likely subject to change, or be dropped entirely, if the development process continues. Other provisions could also be adapted as the process goes forward:

• The parents receiving the assistance must be married.
• One of the parents must work at least 35 hours per week.
• The other parent would stay home to care for the couple’s child or children.
• The CCDF income limits — generally no more than 85% of state median income, although states may adopt lower ceilings — would still be in force.
• The maximum annual subsidy available would be about $9,000 annually per child, and funded by the current CCDF appropriation.
• Single non-working parents would remain ineligible.

Rather than another precedent normalizing the distribution of (albeit already existing) tax dollars, even to the admittedly noble goal of encouraging marriage and family, Perkins said a better approach for the Trump administration to provide concrete, productive assistance to such families is the tax credit.

“Historically, we have addressed these issues through tax credits. If you fall below the threshold of paying taxes, it can be a refundable tax credit. We championed the Child Tax Credit at the FRC. We’ve long been a champion of trying to encourage family formation, parent-child bonding. But government direct payments, government programs, is a step that Republicans have not really taken. That’s been Democratic, that’s been socialistic,” Perkins warned.

The FRC chief further pointed out that “we need to really think through this. I know it’s not a new program, it’s already-allocated funds, but everything that is established never goes away. And I think this will grow. Allocations will have to be expanded to meet this demand. And when we’re $40 trillion in debt, this is not a good idea.”

Adding emphasis to Perkins’ concern about the national debt is the fact that, as TWS recently reported, a growing number of financial and accounting experts are warning that federal spending and budget deficits have gotten so out of hand that the $50 trillion mark could be reached in less than three years. They also warn that the total national debt is actually $170 trillion when the government’s unfunded liabilities are included in the calculations.

The Trump proposal comes as the proportion of two-parent families in America continues to plummet, dropping from 45.2% of all families in 1975 to 29.4% in 2015, and 27.1% in 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. “Among married-couple households, the share with their own children declined over the past half-century. In 1975, more than half, 54%, of married-couple households included their own children under age 18; by 2025, that share had declined to about 37%,” the bureau reported.

Comment was requested by TWS from the White House press office for clarification of the status of the draft proposal, but a response was not received before press time.

The Trump proposal also quickly drew opposition from the First Five Years Fund (FFYF), a nonprofit advocacy group that supports the CCDF in its current makeup.

“Parents are the first and best source of care for young children. However, in reality, most families need some form of additional childcare, as more than two-thirds of young children have all available parents in the workforce, either by choice or by necessity. For these parents, reliable, affordable childcare is an essential part of balancing family life and economic stability,” FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said in a September 9 statement.

“We support providing families with more choices and greater support, helping ensure they are able to access quality care that best fits the needs of their family,” she added. “That support, however, should not come by stretching an already overburdened childcare assistance program and asking more families to compete for the same limited funds.Nor can it come without engaging Congress.”