Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers

The order directs federal agencies to act across four broad areas. First, it requires HHS, Labor, Education, Treasury, Defense, and Veterans Affairs to raise compensation for care workers, expand training and apprenticeship pathways, improve mental health support for the workforce, and strengthen protections for domestic child care and long-term care workers. Second, it directs agencies to identify existing federal funds — including from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act — that can be used to provide child care and long-term care as a supportive service for workers on federally funded projects. Third, it instructs agencies to consider rulemaking and issue guidance to reduce the cost of child care for families using federal programs such as the Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start. Fourth, it directs VA and HHS to expand home- and community-based care options for veterans and Medicaid beneficiaries.

Most directives are framed as mandatory steps to "consider" rulemaking or issue guidance, meaning the order sets future agency processes in motion rather than itself changing federal law or benefit eligibility. The order expressly calls on Congress to make transformative investments that executive action alone cannot accomplish, and notes that implementation is subject to appropriations and existing legal authority.

Families seeking affordable child care or long-term care; care workers (disproportionately women of color) in child care and home- and community-based services; family caregivers of aging relatives or people with disabilities; military families and veterans; federal employees; and Tribal Nations operating care programs.

Agencies are now formally required to explore using billions of dollars in existing federal program funding — including infrastructure and semiconductor grants — to subsidize care for workers on those projects. Care workers may see new pay benchmarking, training pathways, and retirement benefit outreach. Veterans and their families could gain expanded home-based care and caregiver stipend access.

The order works through cascading agency directives rather than a single implementation office. HHS, Labor, Education, Treasury, Defense, VA, Agriculture, and OPM each receive sector-specific assignments; several must coordinate with one another. Most steps require agencies to first issue guidance or consider rulemaking, meaning real changes flow from subsequent administrative processes. A handful of hard deadlines anchor the timeline: a joint Labor–HHS workforce data review must be published by April 2024, and VA and DoD have near-term milestones in mid-to-late 2023. No central coordinating body or enforcement mechanism is established; the order relies on each agency's internal accountability structures.