On July 1, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts 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: 90,000 Nebraska children, 20 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, Ricketts 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.
As Nebraska governor, Ricketts led the executive branch when his Department of Health and Human Services gave the Omaha-area child welfare contract to Saint Francis Ministries, which then failed state standards despite an additional $110 million in emergency state funds. In 2017 he vetoed money lawmakers had approved for Medicaid, child welfare, behavioral health and developmental disability providers, a 3 percent cut in provider rates.
Ricketts also voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, whose department closed half of its regional Head Start offices, and Alex Adams, whose agency wrote the co-payment rule. In August 2024 Ricketts voted against cloture on H.R. 7024, a House-passed bill that would have enlarged the refundable Child Tax Credit for 2023 through 2025.
Pete Ricketts's Votes, Confirmations and Governor's Record on Child Care, the Child Tax Credit and Child Welfare
- Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes for a Child Tax Credit That Leaves Out Low-Income Children. On July 1, 2025, Pete Ricketts 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.
- Ricketts Voted Against Expanding the Child Tax Credit in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Ricketts 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.
- Ricketts Voted Against Restoring the 7 Percent Cap on Child Care Co-Payments in July 2026. On July 30, 2026, Ricketts 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.
- Ricketts Voted Against Protecting Food Aid for Families With Children in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Ricketts 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.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Closed Half Its Regional Head Start Offices. On February 13, 2025, Pete Ricketts 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, according to the Center for American Progress, which warned that programs across the country are likely to face disruptions in grant delivery. 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.
- Ricketts Voted Against Advancing a Larger Child Tax Credit in August 2024. On August 1, 2024, Ricketts voted no on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, which would have raised the refundable part of the Child Tax Credit to $1,800 for tax year 2023, $1,900 for 2024 and $2,000 for 2025. The bill needed 60 votes to advance; cloture was rejected 48-44, so the Senate did not take it up. Had the bill passed, an estimated 16 million children would have benefited, including 400,000 that would have been lifted out of poverty, according to an estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported by The 19th in 2024.
- As Governor, Ricketts's Administration Gave Omaha's Child Welfare Cases to a Contractor That Broke Caseload Limits. In 2019, as Nebraska governor, Pete Ricketts led the executive branch when his Department of Health and Human Services awarded Omaha-area child welfare case management to Saint Francis Ministries, which proposed to perform the five-year contract for $197 million, far below the incumbent's bid. The incumbent protested that the bid explicitly proposed a caseload ratio of 25 to 1, in violation of Nebraska law, which requires between 12 and 17 cases per worker, and the Legislature's LR29 special committee found the procurement failed to meaningfully assess the reasonableness of the bid. Saint Francis kept missing state standards despite an additional $110 million in emergency state funds, and after the state took the work back, only about 40% of all caseworkers in the Omaha area met the caseload law, the Nebraska Examiner reported. Caseworkers with too many cases have less time for the children and families they are assigned to protect.
- As Governor, Ricketts Vetoed Money for Child Welfare and Other Providers in 2017. In May 2017, as Nebraska governor, Ricketts vetoed $33.6 million in general funds lawmakers had approved for Medicaid, child welfare, behavioral health and developmental disability providers; the Legislature's news service reported that the governor's veto amounts to a 3 percent cut in provider rates. An attempt to override the veto failed on a vote of 27-21, short of the 30 votes needed. Appropriations Chair John Stinner said rates for Nebraska Medicaid providers were already the sixth lowest of all the states that provide such information, and the cut lowered what the state paid child welfare, behavioral health and disability providers for the two-year budget.
What Pete Ricketts's Votes and Governor's Record Mean for Children in Nebraska
- Child Tax Credit. 90,000 Nebraska children, 20 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 Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy, up from 72,000 under the earlier law.
- Child welfare in Omaha. The Saint Francis contract cost Nebraska an additional $110 million in emergency state funds, money spent on a contractor that did not meet the state's caseload standards for Omaha-area children.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Child care and families
What is Pete Ricketts's record on child care and families under Trump?
Pete Ricketts 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. As governor, his administration's Saint Francis child welfare contract cost Nebraska $110 million in emergency funds.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to cap child care costs for low-income families?
No. Pete Ricketts 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. The federal child care program reaches only 13 percent of eligible families, the Center for American Progress found.
How many Nebraska children are left out of the full Child Tax Credit?
Under the 2025 law Pete Ricketts voted for, 90,000 Nebraska children, 20 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. Ricketts also voted against the motion to restore the 2021 expanded credit, which failed 47 to 53.
What happened with Saint Francis Ministries when Pete Ricketts was governor?
Pete Ricketts's Department of Health and Human Services gave Saint Francis Ministries the Omaha-area child welfare contract in 2019 on a bid the Legislature's special committee said the state failed to meaningfully assess. The state then paid an additional $110 million in emergency state funds while the contractor kept missing standards.
Last updated: 2026-10-25