WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led a group of his colleagues in issuing a letter to Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services Dorothy A. Fink, M.D. and Acting Director of the Office of Head Start Captain Tala Hooban expressing concern about the acute financial impacts and lingering uncertainty faced by Head Start programs in Virginia and across the country as a result of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) memo that imposed a government-wide hiring freeze.
While the White House later clarified that Head Start would not be targeted by the funding freeze and the OMB later rescinded memo, Head Start programs were temporarily unable to access the Payment Management System (PMS) to use their allocated federal funds. As a result, Head Start programs nationwide have not had funding disbursed in a timely manner – imperiling their ability to pay staff and keep educational and child care programs up and running.
“Head Start programs cannot pay their teachers and staff and continue normal operations without the assurances of payment processing and notices of grant renewals and awards,” wrote the senators. “This will impact children, families, and communities across the country, particularly the rural communities where these programs represent a large share of the child care options.”
“Even if this issue extends beyond the Office of Head Start, we urge you to do everything in your power to ensure these programs receive transparent and frequent communication on the progress of their funds being released. Head Start programs operate on razor-thin margins and cannot survive without timely intervention. Children, families, employees, and educators all depend on these critical federal funds,” the senators continued.
In addition to Kaine, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Tina Smith (D-MN), Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeffrey A. Merkley (D-OR), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), and Andy Kim (D-NJ).
The full text of the letter is available here
In an attempt to review all Federal spending, President Trump's administration directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Tuesday to start the process of pausing and freezing federal funds, grants, and loans. With minimal guidance or explanation, federal programs across the nation was in a frenzy to try to understand what this meant for their programs and services. Including Head Start.
Clarity was issued in the afternoon when OMB released guidance citing, "Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused."
As of 5pm Tuesday night, most Head Start programs were reported to be able to access the Payment Management System (PMS) to draw down their funds and continue providing payroll to staff and services to their families and children.
IHSA's RESPONSE
It just so happened that IHSA's Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl was in Washington D.C. starting that Monday to meet with Congress people at Capital Hill on behalf of Head Start's future. She was where she was needed to be! Because as soon as this intent went public, she jumped into a cab directed for the Capital and met with Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Tammy Duckworth right away. Together, the three worked furiously to contact Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Deputy Governor of Education Martin Torres and get them on board to fight this. By 8:30am, the State of Illinois was aware of the threat, worked up a plan to block the freeze, and made it known to the public of what was going on. It is of no accident that Governor Pritzker mentioned and defended Head Start several times in his debriefing meetings with the public and news interviews. Lauri's quick response to bring attention the threat to Head Start's funding helped prioritize it on the Governor's agenda.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN