An organization that advocates for child care and other family policies is launching a national campaign to encourage President Donald Trump to keep — and expand — the only tax credit that specifically helps parents pay for their increasing child care costs.

The advocacy effort comes as some House Republicans openly consider gutting that financial support in upcoming budget talks over Trump’s tax policy.

Moms First announced an ad campaign Monday that will advocate for Trump and the new Republican-controlled Congress to maintain and improve a tax credit for families known as the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.

Ads will be posted online and on billboards in six cities with some of the highest child care costs — Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New York and San Diego. The imagery compares the cost of child care to prices of popular local foods, gas and rent. The campaign will encourage people to sign a letter to Trump.

Caregivers can claim up to $3,000 in qualifying expenses for one dependent, but in practice the average parent only receives about a $600 credit based on income. The tax cut has not been permanently updated since 2001. (Congress and former President Joe Biden temporarily expanded it in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Reshma Saujani, the CEO and founder of Moms First, said the rising cost of child care is a top priority for parents. She noted data from a survey her group helped conduct in December that showed nearly 85 percent of registered voters think Congress should do something to make child care more affordable — including 78 percent of Republicans, 82 percent of independents and 91 percent of Democrats.

“I think whoever actually does acknowledge how big of an issue child care — and the unavailability of it, and the unaffordability of it — is for families, is going to have their trust,” she said. “So I think voters are watching, and I think it was a really big issue, and the fact that they’re trying to cut it speaks volumes. And so now I think it’s up to President Trump to make whole on the commitment he’s made.”

While the cost of child care in America varies by state, it is a significant expense for families. The average annual cost of child care in 2023 was nearly $11,600 — triple the average annual cost of child care more than 20 years ago when the child care tax credit was last set.

Last year, Saujani and her organization garnered national attention for urging CNN moderators to ask a question about child care costs during the sole presidential debate between Trump and Biden. The men ultimately spent more time talking about golf.

Trump was asked about the cost of child care on the campaign trail and offered little concrete commitment. Still, Moms First noted that at an October town hall with women voters, the then-candidate acknowledged that the related costs of child care is “not fair.”

“We’re going to readjust things [taxes] so that it’s fair to everybody, because it’s really not fair to everybody,” Trump said. 

A 50-page document, which House Republicans circulated last week amid open talks about cutting federal programs, puts the child care credit on the chopping block. Eliminating the credit would save an estimated $55 billion over 10 years.

“That should make President Trump upset, because he made a commitment to families,” Saujani said.

Sarah Rittling is executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an organization that has worked with a coalition of child care advocacy groups, including Moms First, to advocate for the expansion of the child and dependent care tax credit — including a recent letter to Trump. She is hopeful that there is bipartisan support for advancing tax policy that will benefit parents.

“This isn’t something that truly is on the chopping block when you look at the amount of external support for the tax credit — for making it bigger and because of the amount of congressional support that we have,” she said.

Some advocates believe a slate of bipartisan bills in Congress indicate momentum toward advancing policy that helps families with their child care costs. During the sole vice presidential debate, JD Vance acknowledged the financial bind some parents find themselves in. 

“One of the biggest complaints I hear from young families is people who feel like they don’t have options, like they’re choosing between going to work or taking care for [sic] their kids,” he said. “That is an incredible burden to put on American families. We’re the only country that does it. I think we could do a heck of a lot better.”

Weeks earlier, when Vance was asked at an Arizona campaign stop how he would address the cost of day care, he indicated that grandparents could step in. After some backlash, he tried to clarify his stance, in part by calling out the child care tax credit as penalizing families who don’t send children to day care.

“We should try to encourage whatever is best for each individual family. Right now we don’t: we try to force or at least subsidize one model on every family in this country. And if you open up kinship and other options for families, you will relieve some pressure on the daycare system in this country,” he wrote on X.

On Friday, during an appearance at the anti-abortion March For Life event in Washington, D.C., Vance further indicated support for a child care tax credit during remarks: “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

“I want more happy children in our country, and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them,” he said. “And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids.”

The child care credit is separate from the child-tax credit, which currently provides parents $2,000 to use on costs associated with raising a child — like diapers, food, rent, and medicine. That’s double the previous $1,000 limit, though Trump’s 2017 tax credit amount is slated to expire this year unless lawmakers take action. (A temporary, more expansive credit enacted during the pandemic, which reached more low-income families, expired in 2022.) 

Moms First also supports the expansion of the child tax credit.