42 lawmakers write to RFK Jr.
demanding answers on Trump admin’s actions undermining Head Start as
Trump reportedly plans to eliminate the program
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator
Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Senator Tammy Baldwin
(D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, led a
letter
to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calling out the Trump
administration’s direct attacks on Head Start, reminding him of his
legal obligation to administer the program, and demanding the Department
of Health and Human Services immediately release Head Start funding and
reverse the mass firing of Head Start staff and gutting of the offices
that help ensure high-quality services are available for thousands of
children and families across the country.
“We write to express our strong opposition to the actions you
have taken to directly attack and undermine the federal Head Start
program. Since day one, this Administration has taken unacceptable
actions to withhold and delay funding, fire Head Start staff, and gut
high-quality services for children. Already this year, this
Administration has withheld almost $1 billion in federal grant funding
from Head Start programs, a 37 percent decrease compared to the amount
of funding awarded during the same period last year,” write the lawmakers. “It
is abundantly clear that these actions are part of a broader effort to
ultimately eliminate the program altogether, as the Administration
reportedly plans to do in its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.”
The lawmakers detail how the program plays an instrumental role in
supporting kids and families across the country, writing: “Head
Start provides early childhood education and comprehensive health and
social services to nearly 800,000 young children every year in
communities across this country, and employs about 250,000 dedicated
staff. Head Start is a critical source of child care for working
families, particularly in rural and Tribal communities, where Head Start
programs are often the only option for high-quality child care
services. Head Start programs ensure children receive appropriate health
and dental care, nutrition support, and referrals to other critical
services for parents, such as job training, adult education, nutrition
services, and housing support.”
“You even acknowledged the value of Head Start following a recent
visit to a Virginia Head Start center,” the lawmakers write, contrasting
that statement of support with the Trump administration’s actions.
“However,
as a result of your actions to withhold and delay funding and undermine
the administration of this vital program, Head Start centers are in
serious jeopardy and have already had their day to day operations
impacted. Programs are increasingly worried that they will not be able
to make payroll, pay rent, and remain open to serve the hundreds of
thousands of children and families who depend on their services in
communities across the nation.”
“Since the very start of this Administration, Head Start programs
have been under attack,” the lawmakers write, detailing office closures
and funds that were frozen for Head Start grants across the country. “At
one point, the National Head Start Association reported 37 programs
serving nearly 15,000 children across the country could not access their
federal funding. Head Start programs operate with thin margins and on
short-term budgets from HHS, and without any communication from the
Administration about the status of funding, programs were forced to
temporarily close or to lay off staff.”
The lawmakers underscore how the gutting of Head Start offices and
the firing of staff who keep the federal program running puts the entire
program in jeopardy: “On April 1st, you abruptly closed five of
the ten regional offices that help local grantees administer Head Start
programs in 22 states . This left hundreds of programs without
dedicated points of contact to address mission critical issues like
approving grant renewals and modifications, investigating child health
and safety incidents, and providing training and technical assistance to
ensure high-quality services for children. While some grantees were
assigned a new program specialist, we understand many have not been
receiving responses to their inquiries. This is on top of the estimated
97 Office of Head Start central office staff that were terminated due to
their probationary status and the recent reduction in force. You
promised ‘radical transparency’ as Secretary, yet it is unclear how
these actions will improve Head Start programs, and you and your staff
refuse to respond to basic inquiries and requests for information.”
Importantly, they note that without funding that has so far not gone out the door, many more programs could be forced to close.
“Head Start grantees are still waiting on payments and grant
renewals from the Office of Head Start, including programs whose grants
end on April 30th, 2025. These notices should have gone out by now, yet
we are concerned to hear programs report they have received little to no
correspondence regarding their grant renewals,” the lawmakers continue
to detail how local Head Start programs are receiving no notice for the
path forward for grant funding.
“Additionally, because we started fiscal year 2025 under a short-term
continuing resolution, as is usual, some grantees have only received
partial funding for the first few months of the year. But with a full
year funding bill in place, these grantees should have received full
funding by now, yet some are reporting that they have not received the
full amount of their grants and will run out of funds this month or
next. On Wednesday, April 16th, the delays in Head Start funding led to
the closure of Head Start centers serving more than 400 children in
Sunnyside, Washington.”
“The Administration has a legal and moral obligation to
disburse Head Start funds to programs and to uphold the program’s
promise to provide high-quality early education services to low income
children and families across this country,” the lawmakers write. “There
is no justifiable reason for the delay in funding we have seen over the
last two months, and you have refused to offer any kind of
explanation.”
The lawmakers conclude by warning that eliminating the program would
be devastating, demanding answers on the administration’s actions, and
demanding the reversal of them: “[W]e urge you to immediately
reinstate fired staff across all Offices of Head Start, and cease all
actions to delay the awarding and disbursement of funding to Head Start
programs across this country.”
In addition to Senators Murray, Sanders, and Baldwin, the letter was
signed by 39 colleagues, including Jack Reed (D-RI), Mazie K. Hirono
(D-HI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Charles E. Schumer
(D-NY), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Peter Welch (D-VT), Gary Peters
(D-MI), Michael F. Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jeanne
Shaheen (D-NH), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jacky
Rosen (D-NV), Tina Smith (D-MN), John Fetterman (D-PA), Tammy Duckworth
(D-IL), Christopher A. Coons (D-DE), Christopher S. Murphy (D-CT),
Jeffrey A. Merkley (D-OR), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY),
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto
(D-NV), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD),
Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Cory
Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Edward Markey (D-MA), Angus King
(I-ME), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Angela Alsobrooks
(D-MD), and Mark R. Warner (D-VA).
Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Kennedy:
We write to express our strong opposition to the actions you have
taken to directly attack and undermine the federal Head Start program.
Since day one, this Administration has taken unacceptable actions to
withhold and delay funding, fire Head Start staff, and gut high-quality
services for children. Already this year, this Administration has
withheld almost $1 billion in federal grant funding from Head Start
programs, a 37 percent decrease compared to the amount of funding
awarded during the same period last year. It is abundantly clear that
these actions are part of a broader effort to ultimately eliminate the
program altogether, as the Administration reportedly plans to do in its
fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.
Head Start provides early childhood education and comprehensive
health and social services to nearly 800,000 young children every year
in communities across this country, and employs about 250,000 dedicated
staff. Head Start is a critical source of child care for working
families, particularly in rural and Tribal communities, where Head Start
programs are often the only option for high-quality child care
services. Head Start programs ensure children receive appropriate health
and dental care, nutrition support, and referrals to other critical
services for parents, such as job training, adult education, nutrition
services, and housing support.
You even acknowledged the value of Head Start following a recent
visit to a Virginia Head Start center, where you said, “I had a very
inspiring tour. I saw a devoted staff and a lot of happy children. They
are getting the kind of education and socialization they need, and they
are also getting a couple of meals a day.”
However, as a result of your actions to withhold and delay
funding and undermine the administration of this vital program, Head
Start centers are in serious jeopardy and have already had their day to
day operations impacted. Programs are increasingly worried that they
will not be able to make payroll, pay rent, and remain open to serve the
hundreds of thousands of children and families who depend on their
services in communities across the nation.
Since the very start of this Administration, Head Start programs
have been under attack. On January 27th, 2025, the Office of Management
and Budget issued a memo (M-25-13) that suddenly froze the disbursement
of grant funding for federal programs and services government-wide,
including Head Start. Despite the Administration’s clarification that
Head Start programs would not be the target of the funding freeze, many
Head Start programs across the country were unable to draw down their
grant funds through the Payment Management System (PMS) for weeks. At
one point, the National Head Start Association reported 37 programs
serving nearly 15,000 children across the country could not access their
federal funding. Head Start programs operate with thin margins and on
short-term budgets from HHS, and without any communication from the
Administration about the status of funding, programs were forced to
temporarily close or to lay off staff. In Wisconsin, the National
Centers for Learning Excellence, which serves more than 200 children and
their families, shut down for a week and laid off staff due to the
funding freeze.
On April 1st, you abruptly closed five of the ten regional
offices that help local grantees administer Head Start programs in 22
states. This left hundreds of programs without dedicated points of
contact to address mission critical issues like approving grant renewals
and modifications, investigating child health and safety incidents, and
providing training and technical assistance to ensure high-quality
services for children. While some grantees were assigned a new program
specialist, we understand many have not been receiving responses to
their inquiries. This is on top of the estimated 97 Office of Head Start
central office staff that were terminated due to their probationary
status and the recent reduction in force. You promised “radical
transparency” as Secretary, yet it is unclear how these actions will
improve Head Start programs, and you and your staff refuse to respond to
basic inquiries and requests for information.
On March 14th, 2025, the Office of Head Start (OHS) notified all
Head Start programs that “the use of federal funding for any training
and technical assistance or other program expenditures that promote or
take part in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives” will
not be approved and that any questions should be directed to regional
offices. Programs have not received any guidance for what would be
considered “DEI” but this policy is potentially in direct conflict with
statutory and regulatory program requirements, such as providing
culturally and linguistically appropriate instructional services for
English learners. Many programs cannot direct questions to regional
staff, as half of regional offices were abruptly closed, and as
unprecedented actions are being taken to delay and withhold funding,
Head Start programs have been intentionally left with little to no
guidance.
Head Start programs are now arbitrarily required to provide
justifications for each draw down of funds that is necessary to operate
their programs, despite already receiving a federal grant award for
these purposes. As of April 14th, Head Start programs have reportedly
received correspondence from an email address “defendthespend@hhs.gov”
requiring programs to submit a “specific description of why the funds
are necessary and why they are aligned to the award” before programs can
have funding disbursed. It has been reported that political appointees
must sign off on every draw down of funds. This creates an illusion of
improving oversight but only serves to add unnecessary red tape by
requiring the manual sign off on hundreds of thousands of individual
actions annually across the Department based on two to three sentence
justifications. Already some grantees have reported delays in receiving
funds, and have reported that furloughs or closures are imminent if
funds are not released. For an administration that purports to value
local autonomy and efficiency in federally funded programs, your actions
have achieved the exact opposite.
Finally, Head Start grantees are still waiting on payments and
grant renewals from the Office of Head Start, including programs whose
grants end on April 30th, 2025. These notices should have gone out by
now, yet we are concerned to hear programs report they have received
little to no correspondence regarding their grant renewals.
Additionally, because we started fiscal year 2025 under a short-term
continuing resolution, as is usual, some grantees have only received
partial funding for the first few months of the year. But with a full
year funding bill in place, these grantees should have received full
funding by now, yet some are reporting that they have not received the
full amount of their grants and will run out of funds this month or
next. On Wednesday, April 16th, the delays in Head Start funding led to
the closure of Head Start centers serving more than 400 children in
Sunnyside, Washington.
The Administration has a legal and moral obligation to disburse
Head Start funds to programs and to uphold the program’s promise to
provide high-quality early education services to low income children and
families across this country. The fiscal year 2025 appropriations act
provided $12.3 billion for Head Start, the same as the fiscal year 2024
level. The Head Start Act includes an explicit formula for how
appropriated funds should be allocated. There is no justifiable reason
for the delay in funding we have seen over the last two months, and you
have refused to offer any kind of explanation. However, this week leaked
fiscal year 2026 budget documents indicated the Office of Management
and Budget was directing the Department, consistent with the
Administration’s proposal to eliminate Head Start in fiscal year 2026,
to “ensure to the extent allowable FY2025 funds are available to close
out the program.” If this explains any of the delay in awarding fiscal
year 2025 funding, we want to be clear, no funds were provided in fiscal
year 2025 to “close out the program,” and it would be wholly
unacceptable and likely illegal if the Department tries to carry out
this directive.
Finally, the leaked budget documents provided a justification,
albeit brief, for eliminating Head Start in fiscal year 2026 that makes
this Administration’s priorities clear and puts the Department’s actions
over the last several months in context. The Administration argues that
eliminating Head Start, “is consistent with the Administration’s goals
of returning education to the States and increasing parental choice.” It
is shocking to see an argument that eliminating a program that provides
comprehensive early childhood care and education to 800,000 children
and their families would increase parental choice. It is particularly
concerning to see that argument in the context of the significant delay
in awarding fiscal year 2025 appropriated funds and what that indicates
about the intent behind the Department’s actions. We believe it is
obvious that eliminating Head Start would be detrimental to hundreds of
thousands of children and families. Similarly, we believe it is obvious
that delaying funding like we have seen over the last two months,
forcing Head Start programs to close, and leaving families to scramble
to find quality, affordable alternatives puts the education and
well-being of some of the most vulnerable young children in America at
risk. In our view, that is unacceptable.
Therefore, we urge you to immediately reinstate fired staff
across all Offices of Head Start, and cease all actions to delay the
awarding and disbursement of funding to Head Start programs across this
country.
Please provide us with a written response to the questions below no later than 10 days from receipt:
1. Will you reinstate the staff who administer Head Start
programs and reopen the closed regional offices responsible for
overseeing Head Start programs in 22 states?
a) When is HHS going to share information on the reorganization plan for the consolidation of the regional offices?
b) Please provide the contact information for each program
specialist designated to the 22 states who lost their regional office.
c) Who is responsible for ensuring there are no delays or lapses
in funding, nor any disruptions to Head Start program operations now
that these states do not have a regional office?
2. How many employees at the Offices of Head Start have been
terminated, including the five regional offices and the central office?
a) Which officials at HHS were involved in the staffing reduction
decisions for OHS and what planning, if any, was undertaken prior to
these reductions? Please describe the events that unfolded and name each
office that was involved in the decision. Further, please name the
official(s) who approved the staffing reductions.
3. Can you confirm that the Administration will distribute all
Head Start funds appropriated by Congress to Head Start programs in FY
25, as required by the Head Start Act?
4. Please provide a list of all grantees with 5-year Head Start
grant renewals that start between now and the end of the fiscal year:
May 1st, June 1st, July 1st, August 1st, and September 1st.
a) Will any funding be delayed for grantees that are due to receive their annual funding on May 1st or beyond?
5. Why are funding awards delayed for grantees that received partial awards during the first continuing resolution for FY25?
a) When can HHS guarantee that all funds will be awarded for partially funded Head Start programs?
6. What is the “Tier 2” department for review that is delaying
drawn down for Head Start programs in the Payment Management System?
a) When should programs expect to receive their funds?
b) Please provide all communication that went to Head Start grantees on the new review process.
7. What guidance and clarifications have been provided to Head Start grantees on DEI expenditures?
a) How is HHS evaluating Head Start programs’ expenditures and grant awards for DEI?
b) What justifications are being used to prohibit DEI?
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