Senator Murray Holds Roundtable on How Trump Attacks on Health Care, Child Care, and Social Security in WA State Put Families at Risk

ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Trump Budget Proposal to Fully Eliminate Head Start

ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Trump Admin Ripping Away Billions-Including Over $160 Million for Washington State-to Protect People from Public Health Threats

ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Evisceration of Seattle HHS Office and Spokane NIOSH Office Amidst Mass Layoffs at HHS

***AUDIO HERE; PHOTOS and B-ROLL HERE***

Seattle, WA- Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a roundtable discussion at Solid Ground in Seattle about how President Trump's indiscriminate mass firings across the federal workforce, his funding freezes and attempts to rip away billions in public health funding for communities, and the deep cuts he is now proposing to our nation's health care and child care infrastructure-and much else-puts programs and services that families across Washington state rely on every day at grave risk.

Senator Murray was joined for the discussion by: Tana Senn, Secretary for the WA Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF); Dr. Tao Kwan-Gett, State Health Officer, Washington State Department of Health; Shalimar Gonzales, CEO of Solid Ground; Janice Deguchi, Executive Director of Neighborhood House, a Head Start provider in Seattle; and Sarah Stafford, a Senior Tribal Specialist who worked in HHS's Administration for Children and Families office in Seattle but is being fired through no fault of her own by Trump and Elon as part of the wide-scale Reduction in Force (RIF) at HHS.

"We are talking about incredibly essential, basic necessities here-programs that get communities health care, programs that help families afford groceries, pay their energy bill, get child care-and let's not forget Social Security offices are being shuttered, and Republicans are getting ready to gut Medicaid. We are getting our first look at Trump's budget plans-it will be a bloodbath for programs our communities rely on," said Senator Murray. "I know child care is make or break for so many families-and it has become a crisis, not just for parents, but for our economy. But Trump is already choking off funding for preschool, child care, and early learning programs. His funding delays temporarily closed at least a dozen of Head Start classrooms in Washington state-over 450 kids lost support, and more than 50 employees were out of work. Thankfully, they got their grant eventually, but the chaos is unacceptable and the threat remains. If Trump has his way with his budget, this is going to get catastrophically worse.

"And it's not just child care that Trump wants to zero out," Senator Murray continued. "He is closing the HHS office in Seattle, undermining services for the Pacific Northwest. He illegally tried to rip away over $160 million awarded to Washington state for basic public health work. He wants to eliminate rural health programs-leaving our rural hospitals high and dry, shuttering our programs to train doctors in rural areas, and cutting families off from care. And he wants to cut 40 percent of NIH funding, which will push bright young minds out of our country. I am going to keep lifting up the voices of families in Washington state and I am going to fight tooth and nail to protect the programs that help them meet their basic needs from Trump's and Elon's chainsaw."

In late March, President Trump and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFK Jr. announced plans to cut HHS's workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 (a 25 percent reduction) through a combination of mass firings and buy-outs and hollow out the Department, which is responsible for protecting Americans' health and delivering essential health and social services. The announcement followed weeks of mass firings and chaos at HHS that prevented the Department from executing its mission to protect people's health, and an onslaught of detrimental policies that are halting lifesaving biomedical research and more.

As part of the restructuring, the administration abruptly shuttered the HHS Region 10 office, which is based in Seattle but covers all of Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon, and has the greatest number of federally recognized Tribes (272) of all HHS regions. The closure of the HHS Region 10 office also included the closure of the Seattle Office of Head Start-among many other HHS subagency offices-and the termination of all employees who worked there.

Since taking office, President Trump has gutted the offices that keep Head Start centers and child care programs across the country running and shuttered half of the regional offices at the Office of Head Start, which are responsible for ensuring high-quality Head Start services are available to families nationwide. Last week, new reporting revealed President Trump will propose zeroing out funding for Head Start in his forthcoming budget request-a goal proposed in Project 2025, which would cut off essential services and early childhood educational opportunities for hundreds of thousands of families nationwide. Head Start currently serves over 750,000 kids nationwide-with over 17,000 Head Start centers across the country, which are particularly important in serving rural communities with fewer options for care.

"We are on the brink of seeing more of our communities fall victim to a deliberate and entirely preventable crisis when they are already suffering from historically high housing and food costs. If these proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid go through, the human toll will be profound: more families going without enough food, more people becoming seriously ill because they can't get the medical care they need, and more of our neighbors losing their homes," said Shalimar Gonzales, CEO of Solid Ground. "Solid Ground is committed to doing everything in our power to meet these growing needs, but we need support from partners and the local community, particularly as we face the loss of critical funding from the federal government."

"These cuts hurt kids," said Tana Senn, Secretary for the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families. "While there are a lot of unknowns about what's to come, we do know that a pause or termination of federal funds would have a devastating impact on Washington families and DCYF's ability to provide them with much-needed services."

"These federal cuts are weakening public health in Washington state. The closure of the Seattle HHS office took away a critical connection between our region and Washington DC-professionals who understood our unique geographic challenges and health needs," said Dr. Tao Kwan-Gett, State Health Officer at Washington State Department of Health. "The termination of over $11 billion nationally in CDC grants, with $140 million to Washington state would devastate our disease tracking systems, cancel over 100 planned vaccine clinics including 35 school-based clinics reaching 800 children, and cripple our laboratory response capacity for emerging threats. While we're grateful for the temporary restraining order protecting these funds, the interruptions have already disrupted critical services, and the ongoing uncertainty puts them at greater risk. These chaotic federal changes threaten to put us on a path towards more illness and shorter lives."

"Neighborhood House's Head Start and Early Head Start program serves 429 low-income children pre-natal to age 5 through home based and center-based services at 4 locations, with a 5th opening at White Center in May. There are 186 eligible children on our waitlist. Head Start and Early Head Start is comprehensive, we support the whole child: their academic, social emotional growth, medical, dental, and nutritional health. Head Start and Early Head Start supports the whole family, connecting parents to jobs, housing, health care, and providing opportunities for leadership development. Defunding Head Start would cut a vital lifeline for our nation's children and families by eliminating a bridge to stability and economic opportunity," said Janice Deguchi, Executive Director of Neighborhood House, a Head Start provider in Seattle. "Without Low Income Heating and Assistance Program, many hard-working people Neighborhood House serves will face the impossible choice between paying utility bills and meeting other basic needs like food and medication. Eliminating LIHEAP will leave vulnerable families without the support they rely on to stay safe and stable in their homes. Community Services Block Grant advances economic independence and strengthens local communities by empowering local Community Action Agencies like Solid Ground and Neighborhood House to respond to pressing and quickly changing community needs."

"The [HHS] Region 10 team recruited me to work with them because the CCDF, or Child Care Development Fund, serves many tribal nations within Region 10. I would say the majority of federally recognized tribes are within Region 10 and Region 9, so it was really important previously to have a staff that represented the communities that were being served for that program…There was zero transition of planning happening, there are files that cannot be accessed that are needed by the remaining staff. The staff that are left of course are qualified and dedicated, however the years of expertise from the staff that were RIF'd-you just can't make any sense out of it," said Sarah Stafford, a Senior Tribal Specialist in HHS' Administration for Children and Families who is being fired for no reason and through no fault of her own by Trump and Elon as part of the HHS Reduction in Force (RIF). "In Region 10…those staff in particular spend so much time relationship building with tribal nations and states, no two states are the same, and no two tribal nations are the same. CCDF requirements are quite complex, and people are really innovative in the ways that they choose to deliver those services, and so absent having that expertise and guidance on policy, historical institutional policy knowledge, questions are going to go unanswered, grant applications are going to take a long time to review…Our office was understaffed before, and we made some great progress within the last four years, but all of that has been completely wiped-and without any tribal consultation, which is required anytime you make substantial changes that impact tribal nations as well."

Senator Murray has been a leading voice raising the alarm about how Trump and Elon's mass firings across the federal workforce will undermine services all Americans rely on and hurt families, veterans, small businesses, farmers, and so many others in Washington state and across the country. Senator Murray has spoken out on the Senate floor repeatedly against this administration's attacks on federal workers, held multiple press conferences with federal workers-including at NOAA-who are being fired for no reason and through no fault of their own, released information about the mass firings, and repeatedly outlined her concerns with the administration's so-called "Fork in the Road" offer to her constituents in Washington state.

A fact sheet on how Trump and RFK Jr. hollowing out HHS is threatening Americans' health and wellbeing is HERE.

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