Head Start and heating assistance targeted in Trump draft budget proposal

The Trump administration is considering eliminating funding for two key federal programs that help millions of low-income Americans educate their young children and heat their homes. A draft of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year calls for ending support for Head Start, which provides early childhood education and other services to nearly 800,000 kids, and for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, which assists about 6 million households with their utility bills. The move is part of a draft plan, which CNN has reviewed, to slash roughly a third of the discretionary federal health budget, eliminate dozens of programs and greatly shrink health agencies. “The budget is callous because they are not thinking about the people who will be hurt,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which works with state officials who oversee LIHEAP. “To them, it’s a numbers game. They are not recognizing the enormity of the impact on ordinary people.” Trump does not have the power to defund the programs on his own. Those decisions are up to Congress, which often does not follow a president’s budget recommendations. Still, both Head Start and LIHEAP have been rocked by other recent changes instituted by the Health and Human Services Department, which administers them. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month laid off the entire LIHEAP staff, who disbursed federal funding to state agencies and provided them with support. He also shuttered at least five regional offices, which provided oversight and guidance to local Head Start programs, as part of his shedding 10,000 agency employees to comply with Trump’s purge of the federal workforce. The layoffs have left states and local Head Start centers scrambling to find staffers who can answer questions about obtaining the federal funds that remain for this fiscal year. Recently, the groups received notices from defendthespend@hhs.gov, an effort spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, that ask them to justify why they need the money and how they plan to spend it. Allie McCandless, a spokesperson at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said, “No final funding decisions have been made.” CNN has also reached out to HHS for comment. Helping the neediest families Head Start, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next month, works with hundreds of thousands of the lowest-income families in the US. It helps children from birth to age 5 prepare for school and connect to nutrition, health care and mental health services, as well as offers parents an array of support services. More than 250,000 people are employed in the nearly 18,000 Head Start centers nationwide. Defunding the program, which receives more than $12 billion from the federal government, would also rip away free child care from parents, according to Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association. “Most concerning is we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of parents (who) wouldn’t be able to work or would be forced to choose between their livelihoods and a safe, reliable place for their children,” he said, noting that Head Start’s elimination was proposed in Project 2025, a massive policy playbook compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Head Start centers have already encountered hurdles under the Trump administration. In addition to dealing with the HHS staffing cuts, some centers were temporarily prevented from drawing down their federal funds in late January after the administration paused the disbursement of federal grants and loans. That forced a few to close their doors for a short time and several others to consider taking that step until their access to the money was restored. While that issue has largely been resolved, some centers are still not receiving their federal funds – forcing at least one to shutter this week and others to take out lines of credit or contemplate closing. Inspire Development Centers in rural Sunnyside, Washington, has been waiting for weeks for word from HHS about its $4.2 million award for the second half of this fiscal year. So the nonprofit made the difficult decision to close its Head Start and Early Head Start programs this week – affecting more than 400 children and 72 employees – since it would not have been able to make payroll for the latter part of April. (On Friday, Inspire received confirmation of its award and will reopen the programs on Monday.) Inspire can no longer contact the staff in the Seattle regional office since they were let go earlier this month. And the one person it reached at HHS headquarters in Washington, DC, told the center the matter was out of her control. “We’ve received no assurance at all that the balance of funds will be awarded,” said Julie Jones, human resource director at Inspire, adding that the center serves the “neediest of children,” including those with disabilities, foster youth and homeless families. Several other centers in Washington are also waiting for their funds and may have to close if the delays continue, said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start. “These are relatively small investments that the federal government makes in comparison to everything else they do,” Ryan said, noting that Head Start alumni tend to have better high school graduation rates and land higher paying jobs. “From a budget standpoint, it really is penny wise and pound foolish.” Assisting with utility bills Meanwhile, states are awaiting the disbursement of $378 million in LIHEAP funds, the final 10% of this fiscal year’s allocation. But HHS has only given vague responses when asked when it would release the funds, Wolfe said. That money could help an estimated 756,000 households, he said, noting that multiple states have already exhausted the heating assistance funds they’ve received. Some may not be able to provide summer cooling help, which is growing ever more important amid the increase in heat waves, or may have to scale back their programs. Already, LIHEAP only helps about 16% of those eligible, Wolfe said. And the need is great – about 1 in 6 households are behind in their utility bills and the arrears total about $21 billion. A bipartisan group of senators, led by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, sent a letter to Kennedy earlier this month urging him to reinstate the LIHEAP staffers that were laid off. They voiced concerns that the action could “undermine the HHS’s ability to deliver this critical funding to low-income seniors and families” and noted that states are awaiting the final allocation of funds. Likewise, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led a group of 30 colleagues in demanding that HHS reinstate the workers and disburse the money. Until the funding is released, Steve Luxton, CEO of Energy Coordinating Agency, has to turn away Philadelphia residents seeking crisis assistance from LIHEAP to fix inoperable heaters and air conditioners. Typically, the nonprofit has enough resources to last throughout the winter and, recently, into the summer. But this year, the funds dried up in mid-February, allowing Luxton to aid only 274 households, rather than the typical number of between 500 and 600. Luxton is concerned about residents, particularly the elderly, who need air conditioning repairs over the summer. Philadelphia has the hottest average summer temperatures in the state, he noted. “This year there will be no crisis cooling program in the city of Philadelphia at all,” he said. This article has been updated with additional developments.