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House Human Services: allow Child Care Financial Assistance Program access to AHS caseload reserve
Summary
The committee recommended that the Child Care Financial Assistance Program be explicitly permitted to draw on the Agency of Human Services (AHS) caseload reserve to cover existing entitlement obligations, and suggested future language to allow transfers from a special fund into the caseload reserve if surpluses arise.
Rep. Teresa Wood, chair of the House Human Services Committee, told the House Appropriations Committee that her committee supports most of the administration's Budget Adjustment Act requests related to child care but wants explicit language to allow the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) to access the AHS caseload reserve.
The nut graf: The committee emphasized that CCFAP is an entitlement created by the legislature and that access to the caseload reserve should be clarified in the BAA language so eligible families continue to receive services while the program ramps up after eligibility expansion.
Wood said the committee did not recommend cuts to CCFAP and underscored that it remains an entitlement requiring the state to meet its obligations. "There have been no cuts to the Child Care Financial Assistance Program," she said, adding that there are sufficient funds in the program to fulfill eligibility obligations and that the administration's proposal does not change that legal entitlement.
Committee members discussed whether a separate reserve fund should be created but landed on using the existing AHS caseload reserve as the appropriate mechanism to provide short-term access for CCFAP needs. Wood said Commissioner Adam Gresham suggested using the AHS caseload reserve, which has carried a balance large enough historically to cover other caseloads such as Medicaid.
The committee also said it wants language enabling, at a future point if funds permit, transfers from a special fund into the caseload reserve to bolster that reserve. That transfer authority, the committee said, would be a ways-and-means policy decision to consider if the special fund balance exceeds obligations.
Wood pointed members to a two-page Joint Fiscal Office memo (prepared by Emily Burn) posted on the committee's public web page that explains the forecast and uptake assumptions for the child-care expansion. The committee noted that the program is still in a ramp-up phase following an eligibility expansion effective in October and that it may be 18 months before utilization stabilizes.
Ending: The committee asked appropriators to add clarifying language to the BAA enabling CCFAP access to the AHS caseload reserve and suggested tracking a possible future transfer authority from a special fund into the reserve as a policy option during the FY26 process.
