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head start
The Big Ugly Bill Hurts Families Like Mine; Let’s Make Sure Congress Knows
Instead of making it harder for families to get by and thrive, Congress should focus on ensuring that the fundamental human rights of housing, healthcare, food, and public education are more readily available, not less.
Sep 05, 2025
My family and I finally secured stable housing again, years after being priced out of a duplex we’d been renting. I’m both relieved and worried.
Now the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” threatens healthcare and food for my four kids—just to pay for massive tax breaks for the very wealthy. This bill cuts $1 trillion from healthcare over the next decade. It’s the largest cut to federal support for healthcare for families in history.
I grew up well cared for. My mom was a nurse who held down our finances while my stepdad attended school. Medicaid and food stamps helped fill in the gaps for us kids. Our grandparents worked for the federal government and were there for us, too.
With the familial and safety net support I had, I was able to graduate high school with an Associate’s Degree. I started a family soon after.
Then one of my children was diagnosed with autism, Covid-19 happened, and my husband lost his job. And a few days before Christmas one year, our landlord told us: “I want to raise the rent to higher than you can pay, so you need to get out.” And just like that, we were evicted. We’d never been even a day late with our rent.
Life happens—to all of us. We can follow the rules and do the right thing, but structural barriers like these can put economic thriving out of reach for so many of us. My kids and I spent a few years doubling up with my grandparents—and only just recently got into a rent-reduced apartment.
So now, at nearly 30, I’m starting over. I’m in college working toward my Bachelor’s Degree in social work. My kids have healthcare through Medicaid—which is especially important for my daughter with autism—and we qualify for food assistance through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). My youngest children are getting a good start in life through the Head Start program.
This bill betrays families so billionaires can have more wealth and live in even greater luxury.
Once again, I’m following the rules and keeping my family afloat. But then this bill is passed, which will greatly increase the already confusing and burdensome red tape to keep proving that we qualify for assistance. Studies show that millions who qualify for both Medicaid and SNAP will lose access simply due to paperwork errors.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” also calls for cuts to early childhood education programs and threatens the Head Start program and the Department of Education, which helps students with disabilities get an education equal to other students and ensures all kids have a hot meal every day. Without Head Start, many parents won’t be able to work, as the cost of childcare is out of reach for most of us.
Instead of making it harder for families to get by and thrive, Congress should focus on ensuring that the fundamental human rights of housing, healthcare, food, and public education are more readily available, not less.
I’ve never been one to sit around and let adversity beat me down. We’re accessing the programs our tax dollars pay for so my kids can have a better life. That’s what community, society, and government are for.
But this bill betrays families so billionaires can have more wealth and live in even greater luxury. This is not what Americans want. Polls show how wildly unpopular this bill is, with nearly two-thirds of Americans opposed.
The lawmakers passing these bad bills aren’t listening to most Americans. But I see what’s starting to happen: People like me are realizing we have a powerful voice—and more and more of us are using it. When we raise our voices together, the lawmakers who are trying so desperately to ignore us will no longer be able to.
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Sanders Leads Call for Trump Admin to Ensure Access to Safety Net Programs—Without Red Tape
"Your surprise actions will put millions of American lives in jeopardy by adding new barriers for individuals and families to access critical programs."
Aug 04, 2025
Weeks after the Trump administration reversed a federal policy going back nearly three decades that has allowed immigrants to benefit from public health, education, and labor programs, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders led a dozen of his Democratic colleagues in demanding that President Donald Trump's Cabinet members undo the "cruel and targeted" action that will "confuse and undermine" families as well as service providers.
Sanders (I-Vt.) spearheaded a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the administration's reinterpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which the Trump officials determined had long "improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens."
The lawmakers pointed out that the interpretation of PRWORA that was adopted in 1998 already excluded immigrants who were not listed as "qualified" for federal public benefits, but in July 10, the Health and Human Services Department issued a notice to exclude "education, public health, and safety-net programs such as Head Start, community health centers, and the Community Services Block Grants," while the departments of Labor and Education announced similar restrictions.
The senators—including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)—said that rescinding the 1998 interpretation of the law will:
- Add unnecessary tape to Head Start programs by requiring families to prove their immigration status;
- Force mental health care providers to waste time screening for citizenship status instead of providing treatment;
- Jeopardize everyone—U.S. citizens and immigrants—who receives assistance for housing, nutrition, utilities, transit, and job training through Community Services Block Grant funding and thus trap more people in poverty;
- Deny career services to immigrants who form parts of their local economies and who would otherwise have been eligible for workforce training programs; and
- Prevent some community members from developing job skills that could serve the U.S. economy.
"Your surprise actions will put millions of American lives in jeopardy by adding new barriers for individuals and families to access critical programs. They will shift costs and add administrative burdens to already strained state and local governments. Furthermore, your actions will have a chilling effect on otherwise eligible families, such as those with U.S. citizen children, lawful permanent residents, and even eligible U.S. citizens, who may lack the requisite paperwork or be deterred from seeking services available to them," the senators wrote. "Not only will the requirements make the delivery of services less efficient for all Americans, they could also lead to racial profiling or other discriminatory practices—beyond the discrimination inherent in the restrictions themselves."
"Your actions will have a chilling effect on otherwise eligible families, such as those with U.S. citizen children, lawful permanent residents, and even eligible U.S. citizens, who may lack the requisite paperwork or be deterred from seeking services available to them."
The lawmakers called on the administration to reverse the policies to "immediately to prevent further harm not only to immigrant communities but to the nation as a whole."
The policy was announced last month amid Trump's ramp-up of his anti-immigration agenda, including through mass deportations, an expansion of immigrant detention capacity, and an attack on birthright citizenship.
"Your collective actions put lives at risk," wrote the senators, "turn back decades of precedent in our country, and undermine what should be shared goals: supporting the health, education, well-being, and economic self-sufficiency of everyone who lives in this country."
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Nonpartisan Watchdog Agency Finds Trump Admin Illegally Withheld Head Start Funds
"The Trump administration broke the law and denied communities the funding they need to create jobs, grow their economies, and support working families," said one Democratic lawmaker.
Jul 23, 2025
The Trump administration has violated at least two federal laws by withholding close to $1 billion from Head Start, the program that provides preschool education to low-income families, a nonpartisan watchdog agency found on Wednesday.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) illegally impounded crucial funds from Head Start between January 20 and April 15 of this year, when it distributed only 65% of the money it had provided to the early childhood education program over the same period in 2024.
Head Start lost more than $825 million over that time period, forcing some centers to close.
The GAO found that withholding the funds violated the Head Start Act and the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which restricts the president's ability to rescind or delay funding that has already been appropriated by Congress.
"HHS has not provided the information we requested regarding factual information and its legal views concerning the potential impoundment of appropriated funds," said the GAO. "Yet publicly available evidence, including data recorded by HHS on its Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System, indicates that between January 20, 2025, and April 15, 2025, HHS withheld from disbursement funds appropriated for Head Start. Based on this evidence, we conclude that HHS violated the ICA."
The office added in its decision that "the Constitution grants the president no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation... If the administration wishes to make changes to the appropriation provided for Head Start, it must propose legislation for consideration by Congress."
Previously, the GAO has advised Congress that the Trump administration illegally withheld funds for an electric vehicle charging system and for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
"Today's legal opinion from the nonpartisan GAO reaffirms a simple truth: The power of the purse belongs to Congress, not the president," said U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee. "By blocking these investments, the Trump administration broke the law and denied communities the funding they need to create jobs, grow their economies, and support working families."
"Instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward."
The administration has proposed entirely eliminating Head Start, which provides education to more than 750,000 children. Earlier this month it announced that children who are undocumented immigrants will no longer be accepted into the program—prompting a lawsuit that was filed this week by 21 Democratic state attorneys general.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who serves as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, condemned President Donald Trump for "stealing money from preschool programs."
"No president in modern history has demonstrated such contempt for working and low-income American families as Donald Trump," said Murray, noting that a Head Start program in her state's Lower Yakima Valley was among those that had to temporarily close earlier this year, impacting more than 400 children and more than 70 staffers.
"Today, a top government watchdog confirmed what we've known for months: President Trump has illegally held up vast sums of funding for Head Start programs across America—blocking funding that working families count on every day for pre-K and so many critical services Head Start offers," said Murray.
"Trump has signaled he would like to eliminate Head Start—but that's not his choice to make," she added. "Congress delivered this funding for Head Start on a bipartisan basis, and instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward—and he must also finally get out the rest of the investments he has been robbing the American people of."
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