# What the Modernize the Au Pair Program Act Does

This bill is about who gets to make the rules for the au pair program—the system where young people from other countries come to the United States to live with American families, provide childcare, and experience American culture. Right now, there's confusion about whether individual states can create their own rules for the program or if only the federal government (specifically the State Department) can do that. This bill says the federal government has complete control, and states cannot make their own au pair laws.

The practical reason behind this is that au pairs provide affordable childcare for tens of thousands of American families—including military families, single parents, and people working irregular hours. The bill argues that if every state had different rules about how much au pairs must be paid or what they can do, the program would become too expensive and complicated for families to use. By keeping everything uniform nationwide, the program stays affordable and predictable. The bill also notes that the U.S. government considers the au pair program an important tool for international relations and cultural exchange, which is why it should be handled at the federal level rather than piecemeal by different states.

The bill requires the State Department to create new federal rules within 90 days that modernize how the program works. These updated rules should keep the program affordable for families, make it more flexible for military families and shift workers with unusual schedules, and ensure au pairs are genuinely living with and learning from their host families. Essentially, this bill prevents states from passing their own au pair regulations and pushes the federal government to update its rules to better serve the families and workers involved in the program.