Trump Illegally Withheld Head Start Payments, Government Watchdog Says
Federal payments for Head Start this year were significantly behind schedule compared to last year, violating the Impoundment Control Act.
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The Health and Human Services Department illegally withheld payments from Head Start for the first months of President Donald Trump鈥檚 term, a government watchdog reported Wednesday.
HHS payments for Head Start this year were significantly behind schedule compared with 2024. That violated the Impoundment Control Act, a law governing the president鈥檚 duty to spend congressionally appropriated funds, according to聽a report聽from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
The law, sometimes called the ICA, allows the president to withhold appropriated funds in some circumstances. But the publicly available data did not show those conditions were met and HHS did not mount any defense prior to the report鈥檚 publication, according to the GAO.
鈥淏ecause that evidence indicates that HHS withheld appropriated funds from expenditure, and because the burden to justify such withholdings rests with HHS and the executive branch, we conclude that HHS violated the ICA by withholding funds,鈥 the report said.
Before the report鈥檚 publication, HHS did not provide the GAO with information requested by the watchdog or a legal analysis, according to the report, which was signed by GAO General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez.
However, an HHS spokesperson told States Newsroom in a Wednesday email that it would respond to the GAO and disputed the report鈥檚 conclusion.
鈥淗HS did not impound Head Start funds and disputes the conclusion of the GAO report,鈥 the spokesperson wrote. 鈥淕AO should anticipate a forthcoming response from HHS to incorporate into an updated report.鈥
How聽Head Start works
Head Start is a federal grant program to fund pre-kindergarten services for low-income families. The federal government provides up to 80% of a local program鈥檚 eligible costs, the report said. As of last year, 1,600 organizations received Head Start funding for education, nutritional, health and social services.
Organizations receiving Head Start funding generally win grant approvals for five years at a time. Programs in good standing are automatically renewed, according to the report.
Mere days after Trump took office in January, dozens of Head Start grant recipients found they were unable to access funds they鈥檇 expected from HHS, according to a Jan. 28 statement from the National Head Start Association, a coalition of grantees.
GAO鈥檚 analysis showed the department disbursed about one-third less grant funding in the first three months of the Trump administration than it had over the same period in 2024. The difference amounted to $825 million less for Head Start grants over those months.
The law does allow for HHS to stop funding for grantees before the end of the five-year period under certain circumstances, such as for failing to meet performance standards or becoming under-enrolled.
In those cases, though, HHS must warn the programs of potential cuts in grants, provide a detailed plan the organization can implement to avoid grant cancellation and give the grantee a fair hearing as well as the ability to apply for refunding 鈥 all before funding can be cut off, according to the GAO report.
There is no indication HHS took any of those steps before abruptly cutting funds in January, according to the report.
鈥楾he president is not a king鈥
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted President Donald Trump and his HHS in a lengthy statement that asserted Congress鈥 power over spending decisions and admonished the administration for harming an important program for working families.
鈥淭rump has signaled he would like to eliminate Head Start鈥攂ut that鈥檚 not his choice to make,鈥 Murray said. 鈥淐ongress 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鈥攁nd he must also finally get out the rest of the investments he has been robbing the American people of.鈥
Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, highlighted Congress鈥 role in directing federal funding, calling on Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought to comply with appropriations laws.
鈥淭he President is not a king, and laws are not suggestions,鈥 Merkley said in a statement. 鈥淥nce again, we鈥檙e seeing proof that this administration is in clear violation of the law under the Impoundment Control Act. The funds appropriated by Congress are not merely suggestions for Donald Trump and Russ Vought to ignore 鈥 these are funds that hardworking families rely on, and Head Start is essential to making sure the doors of opportunity are open to every child in our country.鈥
ACLU lawsuit
The GAO report did not list any further action the agency would take but did note that litigation over the withheld funding is ongoing.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit in April in federal court in Seattle that included parents and Head Start grant recipients.
The suit described widespread confusion that Head Start organizations experienced when they could not access expected federal funding, compounded by cuts to support staff in regional offices.
No cooperation
The report detailed the lack of participation by HHS in the GAO鈥檚 investigation and tied it to a separate legal fight involving a public website.
鈥淗HS has not provided the information we requested regarding factual information and its legal views concerning the potential impoundment of appropriated funds,鈥 the report said.
Without information from the administration, the watchdog based its findings on publicly available data.
The White House Office of Management and Budget added an obstacle to that task, the watchdog said.
The office 鈥渞emoved agency apportionment data from its public websites, which is both contrary to OMB鈥檚 duty to make such information publicly available and to GAO鈥檚 statutory authority to access such information,鈥 the GAO report said.
On that question, a federal judge on Monday聽ordered the Trump administration聽to once again publish details about the pace at which it plans to spend money approved by Congress.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in his ruling that Congress 鈥渉as sweeping authority鈥 to require the president to post a website detailing how it doles out taxpayer dollars throughout the year.
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