Why It Matters

The House Work and Welfare Subcommittee held a hearing on June 25, 2026, to assess the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program's implementation and build momentum for reauthorization before its October 2027 expiration. The Trump administration has not signaled opposition to the program, which has enjoyed rare bipartisan support. The hearing underscored a central tension: while MIECHV reaches nearly 79,000 households annually, lawmakers acknowledged that without congressional action, the program simply stops when its authorization lapses.

The Big Picture

Home visiting through MIECHV has become a cornerstone of early childhood policy since Congress authorized it in 2010, building on federal funding first proposed by President George W. Bush in 2008. The Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act in 2022 expanded the program significantly, increasing federal investments and establishing a state match requirement. That reauthorization runs through fiscal year 2027, but without action, services end.

MIECHV now funds 14 different evidence-based models and serves families across more than half of U.S. counties. In fiscal year 2025, the program delivered more than one million home visits to nearly 79,000 households. The 2022 reauthorization reforms drove a 20% increase in families served in rural communities and doubled the number of tribal MIECHV grants.

Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL-16), who chairs the Work and Welfare Subcommittee, framed the June 25 hearing as a fact-finding step to hear directly from parents, home visitors, tribal communities, local agencies, and state administrators.

The Data Tells a Story

National outcomes have improved since the 2022 reauthorization. 81% of mothers now receive depression screenings within three months of giving birth, up from 75%t in 2017. Seventy seven percent of children with developmental delays receive timely services, up from 69% in 2017.

In Rep. LaHood's Illinois district alone, Brightpoint provided MIECHV home visiting services to more than 500 families across 17 counties in 2025, many of them rural. Illinois has used new reauthorization funding to expand services and increase wages for home visitors. Illinois MIECHV program outcomes consistently exceed national targets.

Indiana, the home state of late Rep. Jackie Walorski, has been a particular success story. Since 2011, nearly 16,000 Indiana families have received almost 400,000 home visits through MIECHV. The program now helps Illinois provide home visiting to a thousand additional families beyond baseline services.

What They're Saying

Five witnesses testified about MIECHV's impact from different vantage points. Their testimonies revealed both the program's power and the urgency of reauthorization.

  • Mendy Smith, Vice President of Early Childhood Services at Brightpoint, cited research showing MIECHV yields up to 5.70 dollars in return for every one dollar invested through reductions in child maltreatment, emergency room visits, and reliance on public assistance. Smith recommended reauthorizing and maintaining robust federal funding while protecting the program from proposed budget cuts and preserving the evidence-based model requirement.
  • Shemya Wilson, a Parent Ambassador with Changent, offered personal testimony about transformation. Wilson stated that home visiting changed her family's trajectory by helping her navigate early parenthood, access mental health support, and build self-sufficiency. "Without the MIECHV program I would not have known how to access the Special Supplemental Nutriotion Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC), early intervention services, or postpartum mental health resources," Wilson testified. She emphasized that home visitors provided parenting education that broke generational cycles of trauma in her family. Wilson recommended continuing federal funding and ensuring programs remain accessible to first-time, low-income, and at-risk parents, while investing in the home visitor workforce.
  • Shawn Longoria, Program Director of Parents as Teachers at Community Healthcore in rural East Texas, highlighted geographic barriers. Many families served by Community Healthcore would have no other point of contact with the health or social service system without home visiting, Longoria testified. He cited data showing MIECHV participants have improved rates of on-time well-child visits and developmental screenings. Longoria recommended reauthorizing MIECHV with stable, long-term funding, expanding flexibility for rural grantees, and investing in home visitor training and compensation to address workforce shortages.
  • Patricia West, MIECHV Program Director at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, described the significant administrative and workforce investment required to stand up and maintain quality home visiting. Iowa data shows MIECHV families demonstrate improved maternal and child health outcomes including reduced preterm birth risk factors and increased breastfeeding rates. West recommended reauthorizing at current or increased funding levels, maintaining the evidence-based model requirement, and providing multi-year funding certainty to allow states to retain trained home visitors.
  • Paula Seanez, Director of the Department of Diné Education and director of Navajo Nation Growing in Beauty, testified about tribal barriers. The Navajo Nation faces unique and compounded challenges including geographic isolation, historical trauma, limited infrastructure, and high rates of poverty. The nation faces some of the highest rates of infant mortality, maternal mortality, and adverse childhood experiences in the country. Growing in Beauty integrates traditional Diné teachings and language into the home visiting curriculum, with research supporting that this integration improves engagement and outcomes for Native families. Seanez recommended reauthorizing MIECHV with dedicated tribal set-aside funding at or above current levels, allowing tribal grantees greater flexibility to adapt evidence-based models, reducing administrative burden on small tribal programs, and ensuring reauthorization legislation explicitly protects tribal access.

Political Stakes

The hearing reflected genuine bipartisan investment in MIECHV's future. Rep. Jason Smith, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, stated he is hopeful that given the bipartisan nature of MIECHV, Congress can act to make meaningful reforms and reauthorize the program in a timely manner. Rep. Rudy Yakym III (R-IN-2), who represents Indiana's Second District and succeeded Jackie Walorski, thanked Chairman Smith for recognizing Walorski's legacy and for his continued leadership on MIECHV.

The Trump administration has not articulated a position on MIECHV reauthorization. While the program enjoys bipartisan support in Congress, the current fiscal environment is constrained. Chairman Smith warned that if Congress fails to reauthorize MIECHV, these services do not continue on autopilot at current funding levels. They stop entirely.

The MIECHV program has become foundational infrastructure for early childhood systems. Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and dozens of other states have built their home visiting ecosystems around MIECHV funding and evidence-based model requirements.

The Bottom Line

Congressional action is required to continue MIECHV after its September 2027 expiration. No reauthorization bill has been introduced. The committee has scheduled fact-finding but not legislative action. The 119th Congress has roughly 16 months to act before the authorization lapses.

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