POLITICO Pro: RFK Jr Says HHS Will ‘Preserve’ Head Start

This article was originally published by Politico Pro on May 14, 2025, and written by Mackenzie Wilkes.

The Department of Health and Human Services wants to maintain a federal early childhood education program for fiscal 2026 that’s faced funding uncertainties.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told congressional lawmakers Wednesday that his agency will “preserve” Head Start, which provides early education and health and nutrition services to children from birth to age 5 and pregnant women. Kennedy appeared before lawmakers Wednesday to defend the president’s fiscal 2026 budget request in a pair of hearings before a House Appropriations subcommittee and the Senate HELP Committee.
“Some things at HHS will not change,” Kennedy said in his opening remarks before House appropriators.

“We will preserve legacy programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Head Start as the foundation of the MAHA agenda,” he went on to say, referencing the Make America Healthy Again movement.

The Trump administration is proposing to fund Head Start at fiscal 2025 enacted levels, according to Kennedy’s written testimony for House appropriators, noting that “in exchange” of funding the program “needs to be consistent with Administration priorities.” Those priorities include increasing parental choice within Head Start and improving outcomes for children.

Kennedy’s testimony comes after funding for Head Start was not included in the president’s initial fiscal 2026 budget request and a draft plan of HHS’ budget request reportedly proposed the elimination of the program.

“We will emphasize healthy eating in Head Start and ensure the program continues to serve its 750,000 children and parents effectively,” Kennedy said in his oral remarks.

He underscored to lawmakers in both chambers that he pressed for funding for the early education program. The secretary said that he “made sure that Head Start was not cut” during questioning by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) about staffing and program cuts across the agency.

In the upper chamber, he was further grilled on the 60-year-old program’s funding. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) asked Kennedy what he would tell a family who showed up to their child’s Head Start and couldn’t drop their kid off because a provider didn’t receive their appropriated grant dollars.

“I would be very sad, if somebody showed up,” Kennedy said. “I fought very, very hard to make sure that there would be no cuts.”

“I fought very hard to make sure that Head Start gets all of its funding next year,” he added.

Baldwin further pressed Kennedy on what he would do to make sure providers would get already appropriated funds, as some Head Start programs have experienced delays in grant payments and renewals. Head Start providers were also temporarily locked out of their payment system during a federal spending freeze earlier this year.

“The delays in funding have exacerbated uncertainty for programs needing to make payroll,” Baldwin said, adding that some programs have “had to shut their doors until the payments came through.”

Kennedy said he didn’t know of any delays happening now and that he would look into it.

“There should not be any delays, the funding is there. We are spending it. It’s allocated. I don’t know why there would be those kind of problems,” Kennedy said. “I can tell you that within the agency, there were people who wanted to make the Trump administration look bad and that there were checks held up that shouldn’t have been.”