# 119-s-4335: HERO Child Care for Military Families Act

119-s-4335, HERO Child Care for Military Families Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA] (R-IA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-09-25).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4335
- As of: 2026-09-25
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-4335
- Congress: 119
- Title: HERO Child Care for Military Families Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-04-16
- Sponsor: Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA] (R-IA)
- Cosponsors: 4
- Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-09-25

## Summary

**The HERO Child Care for Military Families Act would** **expand and modernize Department of Defense child care** by broadening who can serve, adding flexible staffing and limited benefits to recruit and retain staff, and creating a DoD-wide data system to track capacity and waitlists. - Military families would get more reliable on-base child care as the bill broadens the pool of eligible caregivers and promotes job-sharing to cut vacancies and turnover. - Child care applicants and workers would be affected by new rules that allow National Service volunteers to serve in military child development centers, authorize voluntary job-sharing with each participant working at least 20 hours per week, and establish a preclearance background and health screening system with preclearance valid up to one year and annual reverification. - The Department of Defense would create a Child Care Readiness Data System to standardize capacity, staffing, waitlist, and utilization data, require updates at least every 90 days, and deliver reports to congressional defense committees within 180 days and annually thereafter.

## Cosponsors (4)

- Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH] (D-NH), 2026-04-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Britt, Katie Boyd [R-AL] (R-AL), 2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Rosen, Jacky [D-NV] (D-NV), 2026-07-13T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] (D-NY), 2026-09-22T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- DoD child care data, waitlists, readiness: benefit, medium. If enacted, the Secretary would create a Department-wide Child Care Readiness Data System. The system must track capacity, staffing, waitlists (including families with no access and those needing nontraditional hours), demand by age, and fee assistance use. The system must be updated at least every…
- Easier hiring for military child care staff: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would expand who may be hired as DoD child care workers by removing a prior-service hiring rule. The Secretary could place trained national service participants into military child development centers under existing national service laws. The Under Secretary must set rules for…
- Flexible jobs and perks for childcare staff: benefit, low. If enacted, the Secretary could allow voluntary job-sharing so two part-time workers share one full-time child care job. Each job-sharer must work at least 20 hours per week. The Secretary could also grant limited benefits to child care employees, such as commissary and exchange access on duty days…

## Related bills

- 119-s-5025: Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026
- 119-s-1241: Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025
- 119-s-1793: COUNTER Act
- 119-s-1289: 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Commemorative Coin Act
- 119-s-315: AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025
- 119-s-1547: America the Beautiful Act

## Sources
- [119-s-4335 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4335)

## Related
- [119-s-5025: Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5025)
- [119-s-1241: Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1241)
- [119-s-1793: COUNTER Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1793)
- [119-s-1289: 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Commemorative Coin Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1289)
- [119-s-315: AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-315)
- [119-s-1547: America the Beautiful Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1547)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4335 (as of 2026-09-25).