Over the past year, we’ve seen efforts by the administration to freeze funding for critical basic needs programs that have been enacted by Congress at a time that many are struggling with the costs of health care, food, housing, and other human needs. Service providers have had to turn away eligible families or stop programming because the Trump Administration has withheld and cancelled funding for programs, while state and local governments have had to sue to ensure they get allocated funding. Local entities have had to navigate complicated systems after the Trump Administration fired many of the federal employees who oversee basic programs, ensure that federal funding is provided as the law intended, and safeguard ’ access to programs and services.

Nationwide, community-based organizations and local governments have struggled to address increased needs in their communities, exacerbated by rising costs, and advocates are banding together to reject attacks on funding — including K-12 education, Head Start and child care assistance, housing and homelessness programs, services for people with disabilities, overall attacks on federal grantees, and Census data that helps us understand community needs — for local communities that will make things worse. See below for more resources for this work, and our FY 2027 Appropriations Resource Library has more general resources on annual spending bills.

Proposed OMB Proposal Threatening Federal Grant Recipients

• CHN: FY 2027 Appropriations Resource Library and Oppose Harmful Proposed Changes to Federal Grantmaking, Impacting Nonprofits and Communities webinar recording. If you are interested in getting involved in meeting with members of Congress about this proposal, please let Becca Vucic (rvucic@chn.org) know.
• NEW: Letter from 2625 Organizations to Congress: Stop Sweeping Changes to Overhaul Federal Grantmaking
  • Form to join: Sign-on letter to Congress: Stop Sweeping Changes to Overhaul Federal Grantmaking. Please share with your networks!
• CHN Action: Tell Congress: Block the OMB grant takeover and reject similar efforts at any federal agency
• National Council of Nonprofits:
  • Hill Strategy for Opposing the OMB Proposed Changes to Federal Grantmaking
  • November 10 National Day of Action Toolkit
  • Moody’s Analytics report on impact on credit ratings
  • How Coordinated Action Helped Shape the Bipartisan Senate Continuing Resolution 
  • Chart of Proposed Changes to the OMB Uniform Guidance
  • Final Letter from 1930 Organizations Opposed to Sweeping Changes to Federal Grantmaking
  • Email your members of Congress in opposition to the proposal
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Congress Should Block OMB Grantmaking Rule Permanently to Rein In Administration Abuses, The Trump Administration Seeks to End Nonpartisan Grantmaking, and Bluesky thread on bipartisan CR proposal
• National Network to End Domestic Violence: Urge Congress to Block OMB’s Proposal to Politicize Federal Grants for Survivors and Survivor Services
• CHN with All4Ed etc: Joint Comment Letter on Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)
• AFJ and 112 organizations including CHN: Sign On Comment opposing OMB proposed Uniform Guidance rule change, focused on nonprofit voter registration and advocacy provision
• National Women’s Law Center: The Trump administration is taking a page out of Project 2025 to hijack federal grantmaking for the president’s political purposes and Tell Congress: Stop the Trump Administration’s Power Grab
• National Low-Income Housing Coalition: Senate Releases Text of Continuing Resolution Funding Federal Programs Through December 11 and Delaying Implementation of Harmful OMB Proposal
• Families USA: OMB’s Grantmaking Overhaul Threatens Health Care
• House Appropriations Committee Democrats: House Republicans Endorsed Giving Trump Political Appointees Unilateral Veto Over All Grant Spending and see questioning at Oversight Hearing – Office of Management and Budget
• Senate Appropriations Committee: Sen. Collins Asks OMB to Withdraw Parts of Grant Rule, Extend Comment Period and Sen. Collins Warns Administration Not to Proceed with NIH Executive Order
• Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Murray: Murray Grills Deputy OMB Director Nominee Hal Duncan, Sounds Alarm on Proposed OMB Rule to Politicize All Federal Grants and on Republican Attacks on Social Security
• House Ways and Means Democrats: Neal Demands Trump Administration Withdraw Dangerous Rule to Politicize Federal Grantmaking
• AIA with CHN and others: 105 organizations to House: pass the Senate’s CR and then work to stop OMB’s Grant Rule
• Maury-Fox Consulting: CHN June webinar presentation notes and slides
• Lawyers for Good Government: The Trump Administration’s Extreme Federal Grants Rewrite
• National Academy of Education: Research in Action and Rapid Response Webinar: OMB’s Proposed Regulations on Federal Financial Assistance
• NCSL etc: 45-Day Extension Request for Response to Federal Register Notice, OMB-2026-0034, Regulation of Federal Financial Assistance
• National Association of Counties: OMB Proposed Rule: 2 CFR Part 200 County Resource Hub

General Appropriations Resources and “Pocket Rescissions”

• CHN etc: Letter from over 500 Organizations in Support of Increased Allocation for the FY27 Labor-HHS-Education Bill urges Congress to “insist that the Administration follow authorizing and appropriations law across all federal agencies, release the funding Congress enacted, provide the services required by statutes to all eligible entities, and maintain properly trained federal staff who are able to administer these services in an effective and timely manner.”
• CBPP: Administration Again Illegally Impounds Federal Funds, Bluesky thread on September 2026 pocket rescission, “Pocket Rescissions” Are Illegal, and Congress Should Include Robust Government-wide Guardrails in 2027 Appropriations to Halt Unprecedented Interference by Trump Administration
• NLIHC: Trump Administration Announces Plans to Cancel Nearly $1 Billion in Spending Approved by Congress, Including $56 Million for Housing Counseling
• YWCA: YWCA Missoula temporarily suspends visitation program and Funding Cuts Force Painful Choices at YWCA Mohawk Valley
• Federal News Network via NCN: White House seeks federal spending data on dozens of nonprofit organizations and text of OMB memo
• Sen. Murphy: Murphy Statement on Baseless Republican Attacks on NGOs Providing Contracted Services
• Democracy Forward: Democracy 2025 Federal Grants Hub
• Protect Democracy: OpenOMB Apportionment Tracker and Apportionment Anomalies 
• CDP: Message Testing on the Budget and Congress
• States United: Polling Hub questions on whether President Trump should be able to withhold money from federal agencies without Congressional approval, along with Medicaid and SNAP changes and with Grant Witness Project: Lost Funds Resource

Attacks on Data That Help Us Understand Community Needs

• CHN: Creating a Human Needs Oversight Agenda and Commerce Department Is Harming Communities and Undermining Advocacy
• CHN Action: Tell the Census Bureau: Stop the Census power grab, comments now due November 2
• Roadmap to 2030: Oppose the Proposed Changes to Our Census resource page and Proposed Census Rule 3 pager
• LCCHR: Residence Rule Comment Template, Race and Ethnicity are Essential Health Data, Hands Off Our Census, The ACS Needs Defending in TPM: A New Draft Rule for the Census Seeks Sweeping Changes to How Political Power Is Allocated,  and Leadership Conference 2030 Census Residence Rule Comment Sign-On Form deadline: October 30 5 pm ET
• AAJC: Tell the Census Bureau: Protect a Fair and Accurate 2030 Census and Organizational Sign-On: Protect a Fair and Accurate 2030 Census, deadline: October 29
• NCN: Protect a Fair, Complete and Accurate 2030 Census, sign-on deadline: November 2
• NLIHC: Join NLIHC Organizational Sign-On to Oppose Harmful Census Changes, deadline: November 2
• NEA: Preserve a Fair, Accurate Census

Protecting Early Childhood Programs

• CAP: Head Start Works, but the Trump Administration Is Undermining It and In Rural Communities, Head Start Is Often the Only Licensed Child Care Option
• Together for Head Start: Protecting Head Start’s Future and Local, State, Territorial, Tribal & National Organizations: Urge the Administration to Protect Head Start deadline: September 30
• NWLC: The Trump Administration’s Ongoing Attacks on Child Care, Families, & Working Women, Oppose Proposed Changes to Head Start, Trump Admin’s New Head Start Rule Would Advance Its Long-Term Goal of Eliminating Program, NWLC on Trump-Vance Pronatalist Proposal to Direct Child Care Funds to Stay-At-Home Parents  and on NPR: Why more than 400,000 kids are on waitlists for federal childcare assistance
• CDF: Proposed Head Start Overhaul Will Threaten the Well-Being of Millions of America’s Children and with partners: Civil Rights and Disability Organizations’ Joint Statement in Opposition to Administration Efforts to Dismantle Head Start
• CLASP: Head Start Proposed Rule Would Weaken the Program’s Core Foundation Under the Guise of “Modernization” and Child Care Assistance: How Existing Federal Policy Helps Families Afford Child Care
• First Focus: A Wake-up Call for the Country
• CHN Action: Submit a public comment: Stop the Trump administration from dismantling Head Start, comments due October 6
• Local YWCA in St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis early childhood program faces possibly transformative changes
• ESP: Economic Security Project Responds to Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to Child Care Assistance
• Unidos: What Congress Gets Wrong About Child Care Fraud
• CCEFN: Child Care Coalition Condemns Trump-Vance Administration Attempt to Dismantle the Federal Child Care Program
• CCEFN with CHN etc: 200+ Organizations From All 50 States Urge Congress to Reject Bill That Would Destabilize the Child Care System
• Union partners: AFSCME, AFT and SEIU Letter Opposing Child Care Fraud Bills 06.02.26

Protecting K-12 Education

• The Arc: Moving Special Education Out of the Department of Education Risks Students’ Rights 
• CCD: CCD Education Task Force FY 27 Appropriations Letter Urging Inclusion of S. 5046
• NEA: Students with disabilities need education experts—Not HHS
• ASAN: Moving Department of Education Offices Will Hurt Students with Disabilities
• LCCHR: The Leadership Conference Condemns the Continued Dismantling of the Department of Education
• NWLC AF with CHN etc: final sign-on letter urging Congressional appropriators to keep the Office for Civil Rights’ core functions at the Department of Education
• NWLC: NWLC Slams Education Department for Illegally Transferring Offices and Why We Need BOTH the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights AND the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division
• JCPA: JCPA Statement on Trump Administration Effort to Move Office for Civil Rights Out of Department of Education
• AAJC: School Vouchers Defund and Destabilize Public Education

Protecting Community-Based Services for People with Disabilities 

• CHN with partners: Joint Letter from 130+ Organizations on Protecting Olmstead in Appropriations
• The Arc: DOJ Opinion on Olmstead Threatens the Right of People With Disabilities to Live in the Community, DOJ Olmstead Enforcement: Disability Rights Resources and Updates, and Tell Congress: People With Disabilities Belong in Their Communities
• ASAN: ASAN Condemns OLC Memo Threatening Community Living
• DREDF: We Belong in the Community, Not in Institutions
• First Focus: Children Need Congress and the Administration to Preserve the Promise of Olmstead and Actions by the Trump Administration Target Children with Disabilities (November 2025
• First Focus Campaign for Children: Tell Your Senators: Protect Children with Disabilities
• US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, Jesuit Conference, National Catholic Partnership on Disability, and Catholic Health Association of the US: Joint letter from Catholic leaders to House DOJ on Olmstead
• National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd: Act Now to Protect the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities

Attacks on Housing and Homelessness Programs

• NLIHC: HUD’s Mixed-Status Rule Regulatory Impact Analysis Shows Rule Expensive & Harmful to Families, NLIHC Urges HUD to Withdraw Work Requirements and Time Limits Proposed Rule, HUD Proposes to Eliminate Agency’s Title VI Disparate Impact Regulations, Take Action to Oppose HUD’s Proposed Rollback of LGBTQ+ Protections in HUD Programs, Take Action to Fight for HUD Funding in FY27 and in AP: The poorest in the US can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty
• CBPP: Trump Policies Would Worsen Homelessness, Attack Basic Freedoms of People Who Can’t Afford Rent,  Five Ways HUD’s Continuum of Care Funding Notices Would Undermine Effective Homelessness Solutions If Lawmakers Don’t Act, HUD Publishes Proposed Rule that Would Take Away Rental Assistance, Create New Barriers, and Nearly 3.7 Million People at Risk of Losing Needed Rental Assistance to Harsh Time Limit and Work Requirement Proposal
• NAEH: Commenting on HUD’s Proposed Notice on Incentives, HUD’s Equal Access Rule, Resources to Ask Congress to Help Keep People Housed, Sign Up For The November 18 National Day Of Action!, and December 11 Continuing Resolution Activation Toolkit
• NCH: Housing NOW! National Day of Action priorities sign-on
• CHN Action: Tell Congress we need Housing NOW! Protect Housing and Fully Fund Homeless Assistance and Tell Congress: Reject Trump’s attacks on housing and homeless assistance programs

Other Resources, including So-Called “Fraud” Attacks on Basic Needs

• CHN: Coalition of Over 200 Organizations Calls on Congress to Reject a Harmful Reconciliation 3.0 Package, Human Needs Advocates Tell Congress to Halt DHS Expansion (compilation of CHN member statements, actions, and other resources), CHN Opposes Senate Amendment That Threatens Service Providers and Localities, CHN Urges House to Reject H.R. 8464, the “Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act”, and CHN Opposes H.R. 7726 and H.R. 8872, Instead Congress Should Protect and Strengthen Child Care and TANF
• CLASP etc: Sign On Letter to Congress Combatting Misinformation on Fraud
• Justice in Aging: Attacks on Medicaid Aging & Disability Care Are Cover for Cuts
• GCPI: SNAP Is the Wrong Target in the Fight Against Fraud
• LCCHR with CHN etc: Over 440 Civil Rights, Faith, and Labor Organizations Call Department of Justice Indictment of Southern Poverty Law Center a “Naked Attempt to Weaponize the Criminal Justice System to Silence Speech”