{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-rep-sharice-davids-pushes-restore-birth-control-cancer-screening-access", "ICYMI: Rep. Sharice Davids Pushes to Restore Birth Control, Cancer Screening Access", "2026-03-17", "2026", "2026-03", "Democrat", "House", "KS", "Sharice Davids", "D000629", "davids.house.gov", "davids", "https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "In case you missed it, new reporting from NPR underscores growing concerns about access to birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing after the Trump Administration moved to withhold critical Title X funding from clinics across the country, including in Kansas.\n\nTitle X is the nation\u2019s only federal program dedicated solely to family planning, supporting clinics that provide preventive care to millions of low-income and uninsured patients each year. But this year, the application opened months late, giving grantees just seven days to apply instead of the typical four months. Additionally, the office responsible for reviewing applications is severely understaffed after the Trump Administration fired the entire team last year \u2014 and senior officials are already warning they may not be able to process applications in time.\n\nIn response, Representative Sharice Davids (KS-03) joined House Democrats in pressing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to issue a one-year extension for current grantees and prevent further disruptions to care. The lawmakers warn that delays and confusion are already forcing providers to cut services and putting care out of reach for vulnerable communities.\n\nDavids has been a leading advocate for protecting access to affordable health care, including Title X. After President Trump withheld congressionally approved funding from clinics last year, she pushed HHS to restore it immediately. She also introduced the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act to strengthen and protect the program long term.\n\nRead more from NPR: \u201cReproductive health clinics scramble as Title X funding cliff approaches\u201d\n\nBy Selena Simmons-Duffin\n\n\u201cA group of 128 Democratic members of Congress is calling on the federal government to prevent a funding shortfall for reproductive health clinics in two weeks.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201cThe role Title X plays in keeping communities healthy is practically invisible, explains Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., one of the House members who helped gather co-signers to the letter. \u2018When someone's going in because they need birth control or cancer screenings or STI testing, everyday people aren't like, \u2018Thank goodness for Title X,\u2019\u2019 she notes.\n\n\u201cDespite the low profile, she says, Title X (as in the number 10) is incredibly important. The program\u2026 helps health centers provide birth control and sexually transmitted infection treatment and testing to people without health insurance. For low-income patients, the services are free. Title X does not pay for abortion care.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201cWhen HHS missed its deadline of Dec. 31, \u2018trepidation, concern, real fear\u2019 grew among recipients, Coleman says.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201cThe applications were ultimately opened on Friday evening, with a deadline of this coming Friday, giving grantees one week to respond with all the requested information instead of the usual three or four months. It's a timeline that Coleman calls \u2018laughable.\u2019\n\n\u201cAccording to a senior HHS official\u2026 the Title X team includes 10 staffers, who will have seven business days to review dozens of grant applications from around the country. If the staff or grantees can't manage that, the funding might not go out on April 1 as scheduled. Even a short gap can \"lead to consequences, things we can't undo,\" including health centers cutting hours, staff, or services, explains Coleman.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201cPresident Trump proposed defunding Title X in his 2026 budget proposal. His administration also withheld 22 Title X grants for most of 2025 before reversing course in the face of a lawsuit brought by Coleman's organization. And during the October federal shutdown, the Trump administration fired the entire staff that administers Title X at HHS; those staff members were un-fired as part of the deal to end the shutdown.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201cTitle X funding is mentioned in Project 2025, a document OMB Director Russell Vought helped shape when he was at Heritage Action for America, the advocacy and lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201cRep. Davids says easy and affordable access to birth control and STI testing are basic services that patients have come to expect. When it comes to the Title X funding issues, she says, \u2018I think the more people hear about this, the more, frankly, outraged we're going to see people being about this.\u2019\u201d", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "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://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-rep-sharice-davids-pushes-restore-birth-control-cancer-screening-access"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6414811834692955, "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"}