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momsrising
Trump Wants to End Head Start While Boosting Military Spending to Record $1 Trillion
"Young learners and families around the country rely on Head Start and eliminating funding for this essential program would be devastating to local communities," warned one critic.
Apr 14, 2025
Critics on Monday decried the Trump administration's consideration of a budget proposal that would completely eliminate funding for the early childhood education program Head Start—which serves over 800,000 low-income U.S. families—while increasing military spending to an unprecedented $1 trillion.
USA Today reported Friday that an unnamed Trump administration official—who is not authorized to publicly discuss the plan—said the White House's fiscal year 2026 spending proposal contains no funding for Head Start and explicitly lists the program among those slated for elimination.
Head Start is a core component of the so-called War on Poverty launched during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson 61 years ago. More than 40 million children have been served by the program, which provides free meals, healthcare, and developmental assessments and helps youth develop critical skills for success in the classroom and beyond.
The elimination of Head Start is included in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led plan for a far-right overhaul of the federal government whose objectives closely track Trump's policies, despite the president's efforts during his 2024 campaign to distance himself from the deeply unpopular proposal.
Here it is: Republicans told us in Project 2025 that they’d eliminate Head Start. Now, they’re doing it. Their concern for high costs, for kids, for parents — all lies. www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...
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— Katherine Clark ( @whipkclark.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, warned that defunding the program would be "catastrophic."
President Donald Trump's evisceration of federal agencies—spearheaded by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE—has already kneecapped Head Start via a Supreme Court-affirmed freeze on grants, the primary source of the program's funding. The Administration for Children and Families, which runs Head Start, is also reeling from the Trump administration's closure of half of its regional offices, including in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Meanwhile, Trump supports a proposed $1 trillion budget for the Pentagon, up from $892 billion for the current fiscal year. The billionaire president and Republicans in Congress are also seeking $4.5 trillion in tax breaks that would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans. This, as GOP lawmakers propose slashing $2 trillion in spending for Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, and other safety net programs.
"While families feel the crunch with a worsening childcare crisis and much higher daily costs thanks to Trump's tariffs, President Trump wants to eliminate Head Start and kick hundreds of thousands of kids out of the classroom, fire teachers, and make childcare and early learning more expensive and less safe," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Monday.
Murray continued:
This administration believes we cannot afford to help families get preschool or help kids get basic health services, but we can afford trillions of dollars more in tax breaks for billionaires. It's offensive and just plain wrong, and let me be clear: Democrats won't let a proposal like this go anywhere in Congress.
But that doesn't mean Head Start and so many other programs aren't under grave threat—because Trump has proven he'll ignore our laws and do whatever he can to break these programs on his own. Trump has already tried illegally blocking funding for Head Start earlier this year, and programs across the country continued having problems accessing their funding long after his administration promised everything was fine. He has already fired the very people who keep Head Start running with no plan in place to ensure hundreds of thousands of families will keep getting the care they count on, so it's on every one of us to keep speaking out and opposing this administration's anti-family, pro-billionaire agenda.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director of the Seattle-based advocacy group MomsRising, called the proposed elimination of Head Start "an abhorrent attack on children and families, ripping opportunities from our country's youngest, damaging businesses, and hurting our economy."
"Congress must hold the line and protect Head Start," she added.
The First Five Years Fund—which "works to protect, prioritize, and build support for early learning and childcare programs at the federal level"—said Monday on social media that "young learners and families around the country rely on Head Start and eliminating funding for this essential program would be devastating to local communities."
Hailey Gibbs, associate director of the Center for American Progress Early Childhood division, on Monday called Head Start "an incredible program" that "fosters kids' early development, supports family well-being, and boosts local economies."
"The Trump administration and its apologists in Congress want to gut it," Gibbs added. "We must safeguard Head Start and the thousands of families it serves."
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'Are Your Grocery Bills Lower?' Ad Targets Soaring Price of Eggs Under Trump
"While he is acting aggressively to lower taxes for the wealthy, we haven't seen that zeal to help the working class," said one union leader.
Feb 14, 2025
As Republicans in Washington, D.C., work to give the wealthy more tax cuts by targeting programs that help millions of American families, critics on Friday called out U.S. President Donald for his "broken promises to working people."
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and MomsRising announced in a Friday statement that they partnered up for an electronic advertisement in New York City's Times Square that is set to run 20 hours a day for two weeks.
AFT president Randi Weingarten said that even as Trump "campaigned on the promise to lower grocery prices," his actions since taking office show his true priorities.
"While he is acting aggressively to lower taxes for the wealthy," said Weingarten, "we haven't seen that zeal to help the working class."
"Has the president lowered food prices? No. Has he reduced inflation? Has he spurred job growth? No," she continued. "Instead, he reserves his real efforts for the billionaire class: cutting taxes on the rich, slashing federal funding for kids, and firing dedicated public servants, while ignoring the plight of working Americans who need his help the most."
"Americans deserve a leader who is listening to our concerns and working to make our lives better."
As The New York Times noted on the eve of Trump's January inauguration, he spotlighted the high costs of groceries during a campaign stop in Erie, Pennsylvania crowd last September and told the crowd that "we're going to get the prices down."
The new 10-second ad displayed at W. 43rd St. and Broadway asks, "Are your grocery bills lower?" and points out that a dozen eggs cost $6.55 the day Trump took office versus $7.55 today.
The Trump administration's antitrust enforcers face mounting calls to crack down on U.S. egg producers accused of taking advantage of the bird flu crisis to hike prices, boost profits, and consolidate market power.
"This billboard is not just an ad but a sign that the American people—moms, educators, healthcare workers, and more—are working together to ensure the president keeps his word on the real-life kitchen-table issues like the cost of eggs," said Weingarten. "No matter who you voted for, Americans deserve a leader who is listening to our concerns and working to make our lives better."
The ad's debut came after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representativesadvanced their budget resolution—which would slash healthcare and food aid to fund $4.5 trillion in tax giveaways to rich people and corporations—out of committee Thursday night, as Trump and the chair of his Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire Elon Musk, fired thousands of federal workers.
"What's happening in our country is no laughing matter to America's moms, who want the lawmakers we elect to reduce the cost of eggs, food, childcare, housing, and other essentials—not create chaos and hardship by handing the reins of government to unaccountable billionaires who are looking out only for themselves," said MomsRising executive director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.
"This billboard is a reminder that Trump's fealty to the richest 1% can have a devastating impact on your safety, your family's future, and your wallets," she added. "The chaotic beginning of Trump's second term makes it easy to forget, but we have not forgotten his promise to address rising food costs for families across the nation. Moms, kids, and families deserve better."
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, argued in a Friday opinion piece for MSNBC that "it may be unfair to hold a new administration accountable for broad-based price increases mere weeks after taking office. But Trump invited the criticism. Weeks before the election, he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that the prices of eggs and gas are 'OUT OF CONTROL!!!' and he promised that on 'DAY ONE' he would 'SLASH prices–so fast it'll make their heads spin."
"He consistently claimed he had a plan to bring down prices; now it's clear that he's stiffing the people he promised like so many lawyers and contractors before them," Jacquez wrote. "Americans are already taking notice. In a poll this week by YouGov/CBS News, a whopping 66% of voters said Trump's focus on lowering prices was 'not enough.'"
"Far from being geared to bring prices down, Trump's early policy priorities are likely to add to inflation," he continued, warning about the impacts of Trump's tariff agenda, the House Budget Committee's Thursday resolution, and Musk's "war on government workers, including the inspectors and scientists who monitor chickens—as an avian flu outbreak wreaks havoc on our egg supply."
Jacquez stressed that "if Trump were serious about lowering prices, then he'd be working to ensure that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes, not receive a massive giveaway. He'd be cracking down on monopolies and large corporations that use their market power to profit off consumers, not shutting down the agency that protects them."
"Unfortunately, it appears that Trump has pulled off another con job," he concluded. "Only this time, instead of the Atlantic City casinos left holding the bag, it's American families."
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Senate GOP Blocks IVF Bill, Showing How Extreme 'Whole Party Is'
"This is the third time they've blocked legislation to protect IVF nationwide," said the sponsor, Sen. Tammy Duckworth. "This is who Republicans are."
Jun 13, 2024
After blocking a vote on the Right to Contraception Act last week, U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday similarly prevented the chamber from weighing in on "a bill to protect and expand nationwide access to fertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization."
Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined with Democrats for the 48-47 procedural vote on Sen. Tammy Duckworth's (D-Ill.) Right to IVF Act, which needed three-fifths majority support to hold a final vote in the chamber.
"IVF access has helped countless American families to form and grow. This bill would have protected their access to this healthcare and all the hope it represents amidst active MAGA threats to ban IVF," Indivisible said on social media Thursday. "Following this vote on the Right to IVF Act, all those people now know exactly where their senators stand."
"This is the kind of thing Democrats need to do more of. Go on offense. Force Republicans on the record. Don't let them say one thing and do another," the group asserted just months away from the November general election. "Republicans have waffled on this for months. When finally forced to take action, the GOP was too chicken."
Indivisible emphasized that "this legislation contains basic, popular things that actually enjoy wide support among Democratic and Republican voters alike. It would have been safe and frankly smart for most of the GOP to vote for it. But this shows how loyal to anti-choice extremists the whole party is."
"This amounts to a total refusal to protect our access to reproductive healthcare. It is truly indefensible."
Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—who changed his vote to "no" so he can bring the bill up again—said on the chamber's floor Thursday that "it is a contradiction to claim you are pro-family but then turn around and block protections for IVF."
"In a perfect world a bill like this would not be necessary," Schumer argued, "but after the fiasco of the Alabama Supreme Court decision, and the generally MAGA views of some on the [U.S.] Supreme Court, Americans are genuinely worried that IVF is the next target of anti-choice extremists."
The Alabama Supreme Court in February delivered what critics called a "radically theocratic" decision, recognizing frozen embryos as children. IVF clinics swiftly stopped operating in the state and fears about the future of fertility treatments mounted nationwide.
Alabama state legislators swiftly worked to pass new IVF protections, but the Mobile Infirmary Health and the Center for Reproductive Medicine said in March that "the law falls short of addressing the fertilized eggs currently stored across the state and leaves challenges for physicians and fertility clinics trying to help deserving families have children of their own."
Since then, many GOP political figures across the country have claimed to support such in vitro fertilization—including the 49 Senate Republicans who signed a Wednesday statement led by Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who also pushed a competing IVF bill. However, Democratic leaders and reproductive rights advocates warn that like abortion and birth control, fertility care remains at risk of being restricted by right-wingers unless Congress passes legislation to protect it.
"Republicans talk a big game. But they will vote to block protections for IVF, just like they did for contraception," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said before the vote. "Talk is cheap. Only Democrats are fighting to protect abortion, contraception, and IVF."
Duckworth—who led the bill alongside Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)—declared: "This is the third time they've blocked legislation to protect IVF nationwide. This is who Republicans are."
Campaigners were similarly critical on Thursday. Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, said in a statement that "it is shameful, and it is harmful that U.S. Senate Republicans today refused to take the simple, necessary step of passing a wildly popular bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization."
"Together with Republicans' refusal to enshrine our right to contraception into federal law and to codify Roe v. Wade, this amounts to a total refusal to protect our access to reproductive healthcare. It is truly indefensible," Rowe-Finkbeiner continued. "The need for a federal law is indisputable in the wake of the appalling actions by Alabama legislators who have still not clarified that embryos are not people with the same rights as children, and legislative proposals that threaten IVF access in other states."
After listing the Right to IVF Act's provisions and noting the thousands of babies born thanks to such care, she concluded that "no family should ever have to fear that access to IVF will be denied or that they will be prosecuted for using it. But Republicans in the U.S. Senate today refused to offer that simple protection. Moms will not forget this vote."
In addition to deciding which party will control each chamber of Congress, U.S. voters in November are set to choose between Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump, who has bragged about appointing half of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
"I have long said that overturning Roe v. Wade was just the beginning of a full-on attack on fundamental freedoms, and this is the latest indication that extremists plan to go much further," Vice President Kamala Harris said in a campaign statement about the Senate vote on Thursday.
"Unlike Donald Trump, President Biden and I believe a politician should never come between a woman and her doctor—whether that be for abortion care, contraception, or treatment like IVF," she added. "In November, Americans have a chance to stand up for reproductive freedom of all forms by rejecting Donald Trump and his extremist allies."
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'End This Absurdity': Sanders, Gillibrand, and DeLauro Unveil Bills to Guarantee Paid Leave
"It is a total disgrace that millions of workers are having to choose between their job and caring for their family, their newborn child, or themselves when they are sick and in need of care," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
May 17, 2023
Mothers along with leaders from nursing and railway unions joined U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning to introduce two bills that would guarantee paid leave nationwide.
DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sanders (I-Vt.) are leading the Healthy Families Act (HFA), which would enable everyone working for businesses with 15 or more employees to earn up to seven paid sick days per year to "recover from their own illnesses, access preventive care, provide care to a sick family member, or attend school meetings related to a child's health condition or disability."
A fact sheet from Sanders' office highlights that "34 million American workers in the U.S. lack paid sick time entirely, including 25% of the private sector workforce and 9% of the public sector workforce," and such policies are "particularly inaccessible" for low-wage workers.
"It is time to end this absurdity," declared Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). "It is time for the United States to join nearly every other major country in the world and finally guarantee paid sick leave."
"In the richest country in the history of the world, it is a total disgrace that millions of workers are having to choose between their job and caring for their family, their newborn child, or themselves when they are sick and in need of care," he asserted. "It is time Congress passed this legislation to ensure workers receive the basic dignity and benefits that they deserve."
DeLauro and Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) also unveiled an updated version of the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would ensure that all workers in the United States have access to paid leave for serious medical events. The legislation would provide up to 12 weeks of partial income annually and ensure those with the lowest pay earn up to 85% of their normal wages.
The FAMILY Act would also ensure workers who have been at their job for over 90 days have the right to be reinstated after their leave, allow states to continue administering existing programs, and establish a new Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave. As DeLauro noted, she and Gillibrand have been fighting for versions of their bill for the past decade.
"Thirty years ago, we broke ground by enshrining the Family and Medical Leave Act into law, providing unpaid family and medical leave for working Americans," she said. "Let's break ground again by making it paid. Since 2013, I have been proud to be joined by Sen. Gillibrand in introducing the FAMILY Act, which would establish the nation's first universal, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program. This year, the fight continues, as we reintroduce a strengthened FAMILY Act to meet families where they are now and ensure no one has to make the impossible choice between their job and the health of themselves or their loved ones."
The proposals are backed by dozens of advocacy organizations and unions, with several groups and activists demanding swift passage of both bills—though the odds are unlikely, with slim Democratic control of the Senate and the House's GOP majority.
"I had my first child, I was a public school teacher, and I had to drain all my sick time to try to maintain some income during my unpaid maternity leave," said Rachel Shelton, a MomsRising member from Asheville, North Carolina, in a statement.
"That was a huge challenge, because babies get sick!" Shelton explained. "When I had my second, I made the tough decision to leave my job because the situation was unsustainable. It shouldn't be this hard to balance caregiving and work. We need Congress to pass the FAMILY Act and Healthy Families Act, now. It's past time we guarantee all working people the paid leave and paid sick days we need to care for our families and for ourselves."
National Nurses United also supports both bills. The organization's president, Jean Ross, said that "nurses want what is best for patients, and that's why our union supports paid sick and family leave for all workers. Nurses see the negative health consequences on patients when they are unable to take leave due to their own illness, or the need to care for family."
"Nobody should have to choose between their own health or the health of their loved ones, and their livelihood," Ross stressed. "Further, nursing is a majority female profession, and paid sick and family leave is essential to ensuring that nursing becomes a sustainable profession."
The introductions—which also featured remarks from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.)—come after a year of railway workers, backed by key congressional allies including Sanders, gaining national attention for their fight for paid leave in the face of dangerous working conditions and industry greed.
Mike Baldwin, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, said Wednesday that "the BRS would like to thank those members of Congress who support paid sick leave. Rail workers were deemed essential during the pandemic. They came to work sick because they didn't want to miss a day's pay, or worse be disciplined for their absence."
"This legislation is important to rail workers," he said of the HFA. "It is an essential need, and it isn't just a frivolous want."
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'Disappointing Day for Women': Senate GOP Filibuster Blocks Equal Rights Amendment
"It is shameful that despite the significant advances made in recent history, Americans continue to face discrimination on the basis of sex and lack equal rights in the Constitution," said the League of Women Voters CEO.
Apr 27, 2023
Equal Rights Amendment supporters on Thursday slammed the vast majority of U.S. Senate Republicans for filibustering a resolution that would make the 100-year-old measure the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
The 51-47 vote to invoke cloture was short of the 60 needed for final consideration of the resolution. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were the only Republicans to join all Democrats present in supporting a vote on the ERA. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) remains absent from the chamber, recovering from shingles.
"Today is a disappointing day for women," declared League of Women Voters of the United States CEO Virginia Kase Solomón. "Our nation's elected leaders have failed yet again to see us as equal members of this democracy."
"It is shameful that despite the significant advances made in recent history, Americans continue to face discrimination on the basis of sex and lack equal rights in the Constitution," she said. "Inequality hurts everyone, and we must not continue to be a nation that harmfully excludes and marginalizes women."
“We believe in the power of women to create a more perfect democracy, and that includes equal rights under the law, first and foremost," Kase Solomón added. "A strong democracy doesn't discriminate against women but empowers women. We will keep fighting, and we will keep showing up to hold our legislators accountable. Equality is essential to our democracy."
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, agreed the vote was "a real disappointment," adding that "at this time when moms and women—and especially moms and women of color—face devastating wage discrimination, when our country has failed to adopt the programs and policies that would help parents and all caregivers achieve economic security, and when our bodily autonomy and access to reproductive healthcare is being gutted, all lawmakers from both political parties should support enshrining equal rights for women into our constitution."
"Still, we are encouraged by the fact that this vote took place today; it is evidence that this essential constitutional amendment remains on lawmakers' agenda," she said. "We will build from here. Moms want Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, so states can ratify it at last."
First introduced in 1923, the ERA states:
Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
While the amendment passed both chambers of Congress in 1972, it must also be ratified by three-quarters of all state legislatures, or 38 states—a quota that wasn't hit until a 2020 vote in Virginia, decades after the 1982 ratification deadline.
The resolution blocked in the Senate on Thursday—led by Murkowski and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)—would have eliminated that deadline so the ERA could take effect.
Some amendment supporters in the U.S. House of Representatives marched through the Capitol to the Senate Chamber on Thursday chanting "ERA now!"
Among them was Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)—co-chair of the Congressional ERA Caucus with Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—who said after the vote that "once again, Senate Republicans have failed to do the bare minimum to protect our rights and equality."
Signaling that ERA supporters in the upper chamber aren't ready to give up, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) switched his vote to "no" so that he can bring up the resolution again.
The White House said ahead of the vote that the Biden administration supports the resolution, adding that "in the United States of America, no one's rights should be denied on account of their sex. It is long past time to definitively enshrine the principle of gender equality in the Constitution. Gender equality is not only a moral issue: The full participation of women and girls across all aspects of our society is essential to our economic prosperity, our security, and the health of our democracy."
This post has been updated with comment from MomsRising.
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