On July 1, 2025, Ohio Senator Jon Husted cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, whose child tax credit leaves out children whose families earn too little: 698,000 Ohio children, 29 percent, are ineligible for the full credit. The same day he voted against a motion to expand the credit to the level of the 2021 expanded credit.
On July 30, 2026, Husted voted against taking up a resolution to overturn the Health and Human Services rule that ended the federal cap holding child care co-payments to 7 percent of family income, in a state where co-payments had run as high as 27 percent of income in Ohio. He voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, whose department closed the regional Head Start office that oversaw Ohio's programs, and Alex Adams, whose agency wrote the co-payment rule.
Jon Husted's Votes and Confirmations on Child Care, the Child Tax Credit and Head Start
- Husted Cast One of the 50 Votes for a Child Tax Credit That Leaves Out Low-Income Children. On July 1, 2025, Jon Husted voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, so it would have failed without him. The law raised the maximum credit but kept the rules that give low-earning families less. Under the law, more than 1 in 4 children (28%) under age 17 will be ineligible for the full Child Tax Credit because their families earn too little, the Center on Poverty and Social Policy found. Its new Social Security number rule strips the Child Tax Credit from the approximately 2.6 million citizen children whose parents lack one, according to the National Immigration Law Center. The child care tax credit remains nonrefundable, and Only about 8.5 percent of families with children will receive a larger credit in 2026, the Tax Policy Center found.
- Husted Voted Against Expanding the Child Tax Credit in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Husted voted no on a motion to send the tax-and-spending bill back to committee with instructions to make changes that would increase the amount and availability of the Child Tax Credit to match the expanded 2021 credit, adjusted for inflation. It failed 47 to 53. Under the law as enacted, a two-parent family with two children needs a minimum of $41,500 in income to get the full credit, so children of parents in lower-paid jobs get a partial credit or none.
- Husted Voted Against Restoring the 7 Percent Cap on Child Care Co-Payments in July 2026. On July 30, 2026, Husted voted against the motion to proceed to a resolution disapproving the Health and Human Services rule on the Child Care and Development Fund, and the resolution died when the motion failed 47 to 52. He had voted in October 2025 to confirm the Assistant Secretary for Family Support, Alex Adams, whose Administration for Children and Families issued the rule. The rule, final in May 2026, rescinds the requirements to limit family co-payments to 7 percent of family income and to pay child care providers based on enrollment. The program provided subsidies to more than 1.6 million children each month, and it reaches only 13 percent of eligible families, the Center for American Progress found.
- Husted Voted Against Protecting Food Aid for Families With Children in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Husted voted against a motion to keep the tax-and-spending bill from cutting any food assistance benefits for families with children under the age of 12, and against a second motion to protect parents and others from the bill's food aid cuts. The first motion failed 47 to 53, and the second failed 49 to 51. The law extended SNAP work rules to parents of children 14 and older, and the Congressional Budget Office estimated a net reduction in SNAP participation of 300,000 people in those groups. In Ohio, an estimated 98,000 Ohioans will lose food benefits under the new law, according to a CBPP estimate reported by Spectrum News.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Closed the Head Start Office That Oversaw Ohio. On February 13, 2025, Jon Husted voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, and he was confirmed 52 to 48. In April 2025 Kennedy's department closed five of its 10 regional Head Start offices, which oversaw nearly 318,000, or 44 percent of, funded slots, including the Region 5 office in Chicago: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, according to the Center for American Progress. About roughly 500 from the Administration for Children and Families lost their jobs, The Imprint reported, and federal child care money for the third quarter was awarded to states on May 22, 2025, weeks late.
What Jon Husted's Votes Mean for Children and Parents in Ohio
- Child Tax Credit. 698,000 Ohio children, 29 percent of the state's children, are ineligible for the full Child Tax Credit under the 2025 law because their families' earnings are too low, according to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy. In the Cleveland-based 11th district the share is 45 percent, about 68,000 children. For 2026, CBPP estimated that Ohio has an estimated 749,000 children receiving less than the full credit, Newsweek reported.
- Child care costs. Before the May 2026 rule, Ohio was moving toward the federal cap: Ohio co-payments ran as high as 27 percent of income in Ohio, and Ohio was one of three states with waiver requests pending to reach the cap, the Center for American Progress found. With the requirement rescinded, Ohio no longer has to bring those costs down.
- Head Start oversight. Ohio's Head Start programs lost the Region 5 office in Chicago that oversaw their federal grants.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jon Husted on Child care and families
What is Jon Husted's record on child care and families under Trump?
Jon Husted cast one of the 50 votes for the 2025 law whose child tax credit leaves out children in lower-income families, and he voted in July 2025 against expanding the Child Tax Credit and against protecting food aid for families with children. In July 2026 he voted against overturning the rule that ended the federal child care co-payment cap. He voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department closed the Head Start office that served Ohio, and Alex Adams, whose agency wrote the co-payment rule.
Did Jon Husted vote to cap child care costs for low-income families?
No. Jon Husted voted on July 30, 2026 against taking up a resolution to overturn the rule that rescinded the 7 percent cap on child care co-payments, and the resolution died 47 to 52. In Ohio, where co-payments had reached 27 percent of income in some cases, the state no longer has to meet the federal cap.
How many Ohio children are left out of the full Child Tax Credit?
Under the 2025 law Jon Husted voted for, 698,000 Ohio children, 29 percent, do not get the full Child Tax Credit because their families earn too little, according to Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy. Husted also voted against the motion to restore the 2021 expanded credit, which failed 47 to 53.
Last updated: 2026-10-25