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jeff merkley
Senate Probe Launched Into Soaring Childcare Costs Driven by Private Equity Takeover
“Private equity firms have increasingly brought their playbook to essential care industries," warns Sen. Jeff Merkley, by rolling local childcare centers nationwide "into large chains, and prioritizing investor profits over the well-being of the families.”
Mar 24, 2026
US Sen. Jeff Merkley announced the launch of a new investigation into the role of private equity firms in making childcare increasingly unaffordable for American families.
Merkley, the Oregon Democrat who serves as ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent letters to KinderCare Learning Companies and Learning Care Group (LCG), the two largest childcare companies controlled by private equity firms, seeking information about the impact of the relentless profit-seeking of their owners on day-to-day business decisions.
Among other things, Merkley wants the companies to provide insight into the influence that their private equity owners exert over facility acquisition, expansion plans, staffing levels, employee wages and benefits; and capital investments.
Merkley is also asking the companies to "describe how tuition increases... are determined and whether financial obligations to lenders or owners are considered in pricing decisions." He also noted that both KinderCare and LCG faced serious accusations of mismanagement in multiple states.
KinderCare, which is owned by Switzerland-based private equity firm Partners Group, has been cited by state regulators in Indiana and Wisconsin for maintaining facilities with "inadequate supervision, staff-to-child ratio violations, unsafe or unsanitary conditions, and failures to report or respond appropriately to alleged abuse," Merkley wrote.
LCG, which is owned by private equity firm American Securities, operates facilities that have been reported for health and safety violations in numerous states, including Georgia, Missouri, and Texas, Merkley noted, "with incidents involving children left unattended on buses, supervision failures, and alleged physical abuse by staff."
Merkley said he was concerned that the failings at these facilities were being driven by the profit considerations at Partners Group and American Securities.
"Private equity firms have increasingly brought their playbook to essential care industries," said Merkley, "buying up independent providers, rolling them into large chains, and prioritizing investor profits over the well-being of the families and communities that depend on these services."
The senator urged both the childcare companies and their private equity owners to "fully cooperate with this investigation."
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GOP Blocks Democratic Resolution Demanding 'Unbelievably Cruel' Trump Fully Fund SNAP
"Trump cares more about playing politics than making sure kids don't starve," said Sen. Jeff Merkley. "Kids and families are not poker chips or hostages. Trump must release the entirety of the SNAP funds immediately."
Nov 03, 2025
After President Donald Trump's administration announced Monday that it would partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for November to comply with a federal court order, a Republican senator blocked congressional Democrats' resolution demanding full funding for the SNAP benefits of 42 million Americans during the US government shutdown.
"Trump is using food as a weapon against children, families, and seniors to enact his 'Make Americans Hungry Agenda,'" declared Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who is spearheading the measure with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
"It's unbelievably cruel, but Trump cares more about playing politics than making sure kids don't starve," he continued. "Kids and families are not poker chips or hostages. Trump must release the entirety of the SNAP funds immediately."
Merkley on Monday night attempted to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, but Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) blocked the bill and blamed congressional Democrats for the shutdown, which is nearly the longest in US history.
The government shut down at the beginning of last month because the GOP majorities in Congress wanted to advance their spending plans, while Democrats in the Senate—where Republicans need some Democratic support to pass most legislation—refused to back a funding bill that didn't repeal recent Medicaid cuts and extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Then, the Trump administration threatened not to pay out any SNAP benefits in November and claimed it couldn't use billions of dollars in emergency funding to cover even some of the $8 billion in monthly food stamps. Thanks to a pair of federal lawsuits and Friday rulings, the US Department of Agriculture on Monday agreed to use $4.65 billion from the contingency fund to provide partial payments. However, the USDA refuses to use Section 32 tax revenue to cover the rest of what families are supposed to get, and absent an end to the shutdown, there's no plan for any future payments.
"The Trump administration should stop weaponizing hunger for 42 million Americans and immediately release full—not partial—SNAP benefits," Schumer said in a statement, after also speaking out on the Senate floor Monday. "As the courts have affirmed, USDA has and must use their authority to fully fund SNAP. Anything else is unacceptable and a half-measure. The Senate must pass this resolution, and Trump must end his manufactured hunger crisis by fully funding SNAP."
The resolution states that the Trump administration "is legally obligated" to the use of the contingency fund for the program, "has the legal authority and the funds to finance SNAP through the month of November," and should "immediately" do so.
The resolution—backed by all members of the Senate Democratic Caucus except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—stresses that "exercising this power is extremely important for the health and wellness of families experiencing hunger, including about 16,000,000 children, 8,000,000 seniors, 4,000,000 people with disabilities, and 1,200,000 veterans."
Congresswomen Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) planned to introduce a companion resolution in the House of Representatives. Hayes noted Monday that "never in the history of the program has funding for SNAP lapsed and people been left hungry."
Bonamici said that "the Trump administration finally agreed to release funding that Congress set aside to keep people from going hungry during a disruption like this shutdown, but it should not have taken a lawsuit to get these funds released. Now the House Republicans need to get back to Washington, DC and work to get the government back open."
This article was updated after an unsuccessful attempt to pass the resolution.
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‘Ring the Alarm Bells’: Merkley Marathon Speech Against Trump Authoritarianism Passes 16-Hour Mark
“This is an extraordinarily dangerous moment," warned the Democratic senator from Oregon.
Oct 22, 2025
Sen. Jeff Merkley on Tuesday night began a marathon speech on the floor of the US Senate, which he said was intended to "ring the alarm bells" against President Donald Trump's authoritarian ambitions.
The speech, which began at approximately 6:30 pm ET on Tuesday and and was still continuing at press time, documented Trump's unprecedented assaults on American institutions and the rule of law.
"I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells," Merkley (D-Ore.) said at the start of his speech. "We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution."
Among other things, Merkley pointed to the Trump administration's attacks on the media, including threats from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to pull broadcast licenses of stations unless they stopped airing late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who for years has been a staunch Trump critic.
Merkley also noted Trump's attempts to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, based on completely false claims that the city is "burning down" due to rioting from Antifa operatives. He ridiculed the notion that the current protests outside of the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility constituted an organized rebellion with an intent to overthrow the US government.
"So among the inflated costumes, and the women in doing their pajamas and pastries... and the Unipiper on the unicycle, where do you find a large, organized, armed group with a mission of overthrowing the government?" he asked rhetorically. "Not to be found!"
Merkley highlighted the threat posed by National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), a directive signed by Trump last month that mandates a "national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence," with an exclusive focus on left-wing groups.
Merkley argued that the order was a thinly veiled effort to shut down political dissent in the US by labeling all opposition to the president as a form of "political violence."
"It certainly appears like it's a strategy to take folks you disagree with and label them a terrorist threat, when they may actually be no such threat at all," he said.
Elsewhere in the speech, Merkley slammed Trump for using the US Department of Justice as an instrument of revenge to go after his political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, all of whom have been indicted on criminal charges over the last month.
“This is an extraordinarily dangerous moment,” he said. “An authoritarian president proceeding to attack free speech, attack free press, weaponize the Department of Justice, and use it against those who disagree with him, and then seeking the court’s permission to send the military into our cities to attack people who are peacefully protesting."
At press time, Merkley has been speaking for more than 16 consecutive hours. Earlier this year, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) held the Senate floor for a record 25 hours in a speech that similarly warned about Trump's authoritarian takeover of the US government.
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