Duckworth Joins Colleagues in Demanding HHS Immediately Release Title X Funding

Duckworth Joins Colleagues in Demanding HHS Immediately Release Title X Funding

[WASHINGTON, D.C]. - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined her Senate Democratic colleagues in demanding Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. take immediate action to protect Americans' uninterrupted access to comprehensive family planning and services by awarding a one-year full funding extension for all current Title X grantees. The Senators' letter, led by Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Angus King (I-ME), comes after the Trump Administration last year withheld millions in Title X funding for months, and ahead of Title X grantees' current funding set to lapse on March 31, 2026.

In their letter, the Senators wrote: "…any loss of congressionally appropriated Title X funding will hurt millions of patients and significantly weaken communities' access to comprehensive family planning services. As such, we demand that the Department take immediate action to protect Americans' uninterrupted access to these critical services by awarding a one-year full funding extension for all current Title X grantees."

"In short, these services not only make our communities healthier, but also improve educational and economic attainment for women and their families," the Senators wrote.

The Senators emphasized the importance of releasing this funding and how this delay has already caused uncertainty for clinics and patients across the country.

"A lapse in funding caused by this administration would deny patients and their families the dignity of affordable health care and irreparably worsen the health care crisis that President Trump and Republicans in Congress have already exacerbated by enacting the largest cuts to health care in American history. It is imperative that the Department act now and issue a one-year extension of Title X funding," the Senators concluded.

In addition to Duckworth, Hirono, Murray and King, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Edward Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The full text of the letter is available on Senator Duckworth's website and below:

Dear Secretary Kennedy:

For nearly 60 years, the Title X Family Planning Program ("Title X") has provided millions of working Americans with access to family planning and essential preventive care services, like cancer screenings. Congress recently renewed its longstanding support for the program in the latest funding package. But under your leadership, the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has so far failed to release annual funding for Title X clinics across the country, as it ordinarily would have by this point in the year. Existing awards are set to lapse on March 31, 2026, and any loss of congressionally appropriated Title X funding will hurt millions of patients and significantly weaken communities' access to comprehensive family planning services. As such, we demand that the Department take immediate action to protect Americans' uninterrupted access to these critical services by awarding a one-year full funding extension for all current Title X grantees.

Title X is the only dedicated source of funding for domestic family planning services and preventive health care. Since its establishment in 1970, this program has provided vital reproductive health care services to patients at little to no cost, covering services like contraception, cervical cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and pregnancy testing and counseling. Access to these services improves health outcomes, resulting in lower maternal and infant mortality, fewer premature births, and lower rates of cancer. In short, these services not only make our communities healthier, but also improve educational and economic attainment for women and their families. Title X funding also saves taxpayer dollars elsewhere in the health care system, with every dollar spent on public funding for family planning programs saving at least seven dollars in Medicaid costs.

In 2022, HHS awarded five-year grants to over 85 Title X grant recipients to deliver affordable, patient-centered family planning and preventive health services across the United States and its territories. Without immediate action, funding for grants will lapse on March 31, 2026. Title X grantees were told that non-compete continuation application guidance was required to be released by HHS no later than December 31, 2025. As of current date, that guidance has not been released, creating widespread uncertainty for grantees, patients, and providers with less than a month of funding remaining. If the administration fails to meet the April 1, 2026, deadline for releasing Title X funding to the current grantees, the repercussions for critical health care will be catastrophic. Any gap in Title X funding could result in over two million patients losing access to contraception and preventative care, worsen maternal health outcomes, and increase sexually transmitted infections. It will also risk layoffs of essential health care providers and staff who provide care for patients at thousands of Title X clinics nationwide, worsening the national maternal and reproductive health care crisis.

These harms are not hypothetical. In 2019, the first Trump administration finalized regulations, which had lasting consequences for the program. Over 1,000 clinics became ineligible for funding. Last April, the Trump administration withheld all or partial funding from a quarter of all Title X grantees for months, cutting off over 840,000 patients' access to contraceptive care and forcing Title X sites to close. When funding was finally restored, clinics were forced to try to meet the same need but with significantly reduced funding.

This delay is already causing costly uncertainty for clinics across the country and the patients that they serve. A lapse in funding caused by this administration would deny patients and their families the dignity of affordable health care and irreparably worsen the health care crisis that President Trump and Republicans in Congress have already exacerbated by enacting the largest cuts to health care in American history. It is imperative that the Department act now and issue a one-year extension of Title X funding.

Sincerely,

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