{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-chu-morrison-and-sen-murray-lead-house-senate-democrats-demand-rfk", "Reps. Chu, Morrison, and Sen. Murray Lead House & Senate Democrats to Demand RFK Jr. & HHS Return Millions in Funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program", "2026-09-25", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Judy Chu", "C001080", "chu.house.gov", "chu", "https://chu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus (DWC) Reproductive Task Force Co-Chairs & Liaisons Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28) and Rep. Kelly Morrison (MN-03), and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) led 92 Democratic Senators & Members in a letter to the Department of Human & Health Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) demanding the return of Congressionally appropriated funds to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP).\n\nWhen HHS initially terminated funding and announced their intention to redirect funds to ideologically conservative programs in July, 79 members of the DWC and Democratic Caucus sent a letter to HHS warning of the negative impacts this would have on communities. They demanded HHS restore the funding, provide the rationale behind each cancellation, and justify their plan to redirect funding. Since then, none of the funding has been restored to TPP grant recipients, and local programs that work to reduce teen pregnancy, STIs, and other health risks for young people have halted work.\n\nAlthough the administration\u2019s attempt to redirect funding was stopped by federal courts, the funding is now sitting unused with no publicized plan from HHS to return it and seems likely to not be returned to grant recipients. If the funding is not returned soon, the over $100 million that Congress appropriated to TPP grants is at risk of lapsing\u2014wasting Americans valuable tax dollars and leaving programs across the country unable to operate.\n\nHHS\u2019s only options are to either return the funding to the communities and teens who rely on it or let it go to waste.\n\nIn their letter, the Members and Senators expose the uncertainty created by HHS\u2019s illegal withholding of TPP grant funding:\n\n\u201cAs the fiscal year rapidly comes to an end on September 30, we are very concerned that your Department has failed to distribute over $100 million of the $101 million in funding Congress provided for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program. Your decision to terminate the vast majority of existing TPP grants this summer and your attempts to distort the program and impose illegal conditions on grant recipients have already halted critical work being done in states across the country to prevent teen pregnancy.\u201d\n\nThe Members also explain the duty of HHS to distribute the Congressionally allocated funds properly:\n\n\u201cThe only reasonable path forward is to provide funding to the grantees that were previously subject to the Department\u2019s arbitrary terminations. As of this writing, only $579,499 of the program's $101 million appropriation has been provided to a single grantee. It is clear you have no practical plan to legally spend down these funds before they expire, and the best course of action is to simply renew the awards that were terminated.\u201d\n\nLastly, the Members closed by reiterating the damage RFK Jr.\u2019s cuts have done to local programs across the country:\n\n\u201cFor example, in Central Pennsylvania, more than 10,000 teens\u2014many of whom are foster youth, have substance use disorders, or face mental health challenges\u2014will lose access to these critical resources due to the discontinuation of funding for a single provider. In South Carolina, the discontinuation of funds for another provider would impact over 6,450 youth and has already led to staff layoffs.\u201d\n\nThe letter was signed by Reps. Becca Balint (VT-AL), Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (CA-44), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Shontel Brown (OH-11), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Andr\u00e9 Carson (IN-07), Troy Carter (LA-02), Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), Angie Craig (MN-02), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Danny Davis (IL-07), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Sarah Elfreth (MD-03), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Bill Foster (IL-11), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Al Green (TX-09), Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Julie Johnson (TX-32), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Timothy Kennedy (NY-26), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (NM-03), Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Doris Matsui (CA-07), Lucy McBath (GA-07), April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Christian Menefee (TX-18), Grace Meng (NY-06), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Dave Min (CA-47), Gwen Moore (WI-04), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), Brittany Pettersen (CO-07), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Emily Randall (WA-06), Deborah Ross (NC-02), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Kim Schrier (WA-08), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Melanie Stansbury (NM-01), Haley Stevens (MI-11), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Norma Torres (CA-35), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Lori Trahan (MA-03), Gabe Vasquez (NM-02), Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez (NY-07), Maxine Waters (CA-43), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Nikema Williams (GA-05), and Frederica Wilson (FL-24); and by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Cory Booker (NJ), Tammy Duckworth (IL), John Fetterman (PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Martin Heinrich (NM), Mazie Hirono (HI), Edward Markey (MA), Jack Reed (RI), Bernard Sanders (VT), Adam Schiff (CA), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Ron Wyden (OR).", 1, "2026-09-27T10:23:37Z", "2026-09-27T10:25:08Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-chu-morrison-and-sen-murray-lead-house-senate-democrats-demand-rfk"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5918239951133728, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}