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 citizens’ 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, 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.

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: Sign-on letter to Congress: Stop Sweeping Changes to Overhaul Federal Grantmaking, deadline: November 11
• CHN Action: Tell Congress: Stop the White House takeover of federal grants and protect funding for local communities and 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
  • 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
• 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: 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
• CDP: Message Testing on the Budget and Congress
• 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

Attacks on Data That Help Us Understand Community Needs

• CHN: Commerce Department Is Harming Communities and Undermining Advocacy
• CHN Action: Tell the Census Bureau: Stop the Census power grab, comments now due November 13
• Roadmap to 2030: Oppose the Proposed Changes to Our Census resource page and Proposed Census Rule 3 pager
• LCCHR: Residence Rule Comment Template, Hands Off Our Census,
• The ACS Needs Defending and in TPM: A New Draft Rule for the Census Seeks Sweeping Changes to How Political Power Is Allocated 
• NCN: Protect a Fair, Complete and Accurate 2030 Census, sign-on deadline: October 13
• AAJC: Tell the Census Bureau: Protect a Fair and Accurate 2030 Census
• NEA: Preserve a Fair, Accurate Census

Protecting Early Childhood Programs

• CHN Action: Submit a public comment: Stop the Trump administration from dismantling Head Start, comments due October 6
• Together for Head Start: comment templates  and Local, State, Territorial, Tribal & National Organizations: Urge the Administration to Protect Head Start deadline: September 30
• NWLC: 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
• 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 
• 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

Protecting Community-Based Services for People with Disabilities 

• The Arc: DOJ Opinion on Olmstead Threatens the Right of People With Disabilities to Live in the Community
• 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//First Focus Campaign for Children: Tell Your Senators: Protect Children with Disabilities

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
• 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”