AFT’s Weingarten Slams Pathetic and Destructive Labor, HHS, Education Funding Bill

WASHINGTON-The AFT sent a letter to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee today urging members to oppose the draft fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. AFT President Randi Weingarten also issued the following statement:

"This is idiocy, and, worse, it's dangerous. This bill should strengthen public schools; expand art, music, and career and technical education programs; and cut healthcare costs for families, but instead bipartisan programs are being gutted to hand tax breaks to billionaires. It should make life easier for everyday Americans, but it does the exact opposite, doubling down on policies that will take a dagger to the heart of our communities.

"As a union of nearly 2 million members and on behalf of the tens of millions of children and families we serve, we're fighting back. We refuse to stand silently while this administration and the congressional majority abandon critical Title I funding benefiting both red and blue states, make college less affordable, hike drug costs and rip food from hungry children, while entrenching the power and wealth of corporations and oligarchs.

"The American people voted last fall to strengthen, not weaken, public education. They voted against inflation and for affordability. They do not support draconian cuts that decimate the services our students, families and communities rely on. That is why this ruinous bill must be rejected and immediately rewritten on a bipartisan basis."

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.