{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/senators-murray-lujan-and-advocates-sound-the-alarm-on-trumps-latest-attack-on-head-start-vow-to-save-head-start/", "Senators Murray, Luj\u00e1n, and Advocates Sound the Alarm on Trump\u2019s Latest Attack on Head Start, Vow to Save Head Start", "2026-08-06", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "ICYMI: Senator Murray Slam\u2019s Trump\u2019s Latest Attack on Head Start, Calls on Teachers and Parents to Protect the Program\n\n*** WATCH PRESS CONFERENCE HERE, DOWNLOAD HERE***\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), held a virtual press conference with Senator Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-NM), and advocates in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued today by the Department of Health and Human Services that guts Head Start by shredding basic standards that keep kids safe and advance their education. The rule removes most of Head Start\u2019s 133 pages of requirements for math and literacy curriculums, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits and more.\n\nJoining the press call were Joel Ryan, Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Head Start; Dr. Ruth Friedman, former Director of the Office of Child Care at the Administration for Children and Families at HHS; and Lori Pittman, a parent from Washington state a Policy, Advocacy, and Government Relations Advisor for Early Learning K-12, and Postsecondary at Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD), and a co-founder of the Washington State Parent Ambassador Program, a statewide initiative supporting parent leadership and advocacy.\n\n\u201cYour child\u2019s safety should not depend on their zip code. That has been the entire point of Head Start since 1965. If they wanted to serve more kids, they could ask Congress for more funding. I\u2019d write that bill this afternoon. Instead, they\u2019re saying they might be able to serve more children by promising each child less. Nobody should pretend this came out of nowhere. President Trump has all but declared war on Head Start,\u201d said Senator Murray. \u201cThis rule is not final. There is a public comment period. I want parents to weigh in. I want teachers to weigh in. Because I have seen what happens when enough ordinary people refuse to let something get ripped away from them. And on my end: I will press administration officials when they come before Congress. I will sound the alarm as loudly as I possibly can. I will carry this fight into every negotiation I walk into. And Congress just funded Head Start at an increase, on a bipartisan basis, so let me be clear: Congress funds Head Start to be Head Start. Trump is coming after America\u2019s kids. That is so unacceptable. This isn\u2019t partisan. This is a program red and blue states rely on. Parents, teachers, and communities across America need to speak up and speak out\u2014together we will beat this rule and save Head Start.\u201d\n\n\u201cI know the value of Head Start, it got me to the U.S. Senate,\u201d said Senator Luj\u00e1n, one of only two U.S. Senators who attended Head Start. \u201cSince President Trump took office, he and his administration have made it harder and harder for young children to get an early education. Now, he is moving forward with a proposed rule to gut Head Start and strip basic education, health, and safety standards our kids rely on. That is why I joined Senator Murray and advocates today and will continue to fight to protect Head Start.\u201d\n\nHead Start currently serves over 750,000 kids nationwide, and the program has served more than 40 million children and their families nationwide since its inception in 1965. There are over 17,000 Head Start centers nationwide and these centers are particularly important in serving rural communities with fewer options for care.\n\nThroughout his second term, President Trump has gutted the offices that keep Head Start centers and child care programs across the country running. Since taking office, the Trump administration has fired 40 to 50% of the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 (HHS) Office of Head Start and Office of Child Care. In April of 2025, Trump continued to hollow out HHS, by shuttering five of the 10 regional offices for both Office of Child Care and Office of Head Start, which served 22 states and five territories. President Trump also illegally impounded funding provided by Congress for Head Start programs across America, in violation of the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). In response, Senator Murray raised alarm bells and she led her colleagues in demanding that the funds get moving.\n\nNotably, a leaked memo indicated that the Trump administration\u2014in keeping with Project 2025\u2014would push to completely eliminate Head Start as a part of its FY26 budget request. Ultimately, strong public outcry and backlash prevented the Trump administration from including the elimination of Head Start in its budget request.\n\nIn April, President Trump said \u201cDon\u2019t send any money for day care, because the United States can\u2019t take care of day care\u2026 We\u2019re fighting wars. We can\u2019t take care of day care\u2026 It\u2019s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.\u201d\n\nLast year, HHS took steps to attack immigrant children and their families by issuing a notice reinterpreting longstanding guidance under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) to reinterpret Head Start as a federal public benefit subject to immigration restrictions. The guidance, currently tied up in litigation and stalled from being enforced, threw programs and families into chaos, sparking confusion and driving many families to keep their kids at home out of fear of discrimination or immigration enforcement.\n\nHHS has also proposed changes to the Head Start Program that would roll back regulations targeted at increasing salaries for the Head Start workforce\u2014one of the top barriers to recruitment and retention leading to fewer children being served.\n\nIn the face of Trump\u2019s calls to cut investments in state early childhood education programs and repeated attacks on the program, Democrats have consistently defended resources for child care and early childhood education. In March of this year, Senator Murray led her colleagues and established a new working group as the latest major push in Democrats\u2019 fight to lower costs and deliver child care for every American family. The Child Care for America working group will bring Democratic members of Congress together to coordinate broad support for landmark child care legislation.\n\nSenator Murray\u2019s remarks, as delivered, are below:\n\n\u201cYou know, this morning, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed shredding the rule book that has protected kids in Head Start for sixty years\u2014133 pages of standards, gutted. And I want to be really concrete about what is in those pages that they are throwing away.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s duration requirements\u2014meaning, is the program actually open while parents are working? It\u2019s professional development requirements to make sure that our teachers are equipped to keep our kids safe\u2014that\u2019s everything from instruction on our kids social-emotional development, and training to recognize and report child abuse. It is watering down quality standards for families that want home-based and family-care\u2014like safety requirements: are there play areas? Is there space for food prep? Are the bathrooms up to standard?\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s class sizes\u2014because there\u2019s a reason Head Start tells providers how many toddlers one adult can supervise. It\u2019s how many kids any one teacher can actually keep safe on a busy day. It\u2019s the medical screenings\u2014for countless families, Head Start is the first place anyone will ever check their child\u2019s hearing, or vision, or teeth. Ignoring these kids\u2019 health today, costs us more tomorrow. It\u2019s eliminating protections that keep a kid with a disability safe from harmful practices like restraint, or seclusion and expulsion\u2014that\u2019s just not something any of us should accept.\n\n\u201cAnd there is one more piece that really doesn\u2019t make sense: this rule forces English-only instruction. There are American children who have different language needs. Denying children instruction in their first language\u2014that\u2019s backwards, and it doesn\u2019t help anyone. Now, the administration has given this rule a very nice name: Reducing Federal Burden.\n\n\u201cSo, let\u2019s look at what they actually list as burdens: background checks for the adults who are alone in a room with your four-year-old; safety standards for the buses that drive your toddler to school; vision and hearing screenings for your kids. That is not red tape. That\u2019s all important stuff to keep our kids safe and healthy! They want to hand all of it to the states\u2014and if you live in a state that never writes those rules, too bad.\n\n\u201cYour child\u2019s safety should not depend on their zip code. That has been the entire point of Head Start since 1965. If they wanted to serve more kids, they could ask Congress for more funding. I would write that bill this afternoon. Instead, they\u2019re saying they might be able to serve more children by promising each child less.\n\n\u201cNobody should pretend this came out of nowhere. President Trump has all but declared war on Head Start. He illegally impounded Head Start funding that Congress passed into law\u2014in violation of the Impoundment Control Act\u2014and centers couldn\u2019t make payroll until we raised the alarm and forced the money out the door.\n\n\u201cHe fired 40 to 50 percent of the staff at the Office of Head Start and the Office of Child Care. He shut down five of the ten regional offices\u2014which served 22 states and five territories\u2014overnight.\n\n\u201cOne of those offices was in Seattle. It served every Head Start program in Washington state\u201415,000 kids. In the Yakima Valley, a provider waiting on funding that never showed up had to lay off 72 employees and shutter a dozen classrooms, that served 400 kids. Now eventually that money came, but only after the layoffs. In Walla Walla, a program that has served kids for decades is warning it may not survive.\n\n\u201cFunding delays and uncertainty continue to persist. And let\u2019s not forget, a leaked memo showed that Trump planned to eliminate Head Start altogether\u2014straight out of Project 2025\u2014until public outcry forced him to back down.\n\n\u201cHe rolled back the rule raising pay for our Head Start teachers. His HHS tried to rewrite thirty years of guidance to turn Head Start into an immigration checkpoint\u2014that one is stalled in court, but it already drove scared families to keep their kids home.\n\n\u201cIf anyone doubts me, listen to the President\u2019s own words. He said, \u2018Don\u2019t send any money for day care, because the United States can\u2019t take care of day care\u2026We\u2019re fighting wars.\u2019\n\n\u201cI taught preschool. I got into politics because politicians decided a preschool program wasn\u2019t worth saving\u2014one of them told me a mom in tennis shoes couldn\u2019t make a difference. So here\u2019s what happens now. This rule is not final. There is a public comment period. So, I want parents to weigh in. I want teachers to weigh in. Because I have seen what happens when enough ordinary people refuse to let something get ripped away from them.\n\n\u201cAnd on my end: I will press administration officials when they come before Congress. I\u2019ll sound the alarm as loudly as I possibly can, and I will carry this fight into every negotiation I walk into. And Congress just funded Head Start at an increase, on a bipartisan basis, so let me be clear: Congress funds Head Start to be a Head Start.\n\n\u201cTrump is coming after America\u2019s kids. That is unacceptable. This is not partisan. This is a program red and blue states rely on.\n\n\u201cParents, teachers, and communities across America need to speak up and speak out\u2014together we will beat this rule and save Head Start.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-07T06:11:19Z", "2026-08-07T06:12:42Z"]], "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://www.murray.senate.gov/senators-murray-lujan-and-advocates-sound-the-alarm-on-trumps-latest-attack-on-head-start-vow-to-save-head-start/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.837612923234701, "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"}