Washington, D.C. — Today, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark called out Republicans’ latest attack on working people: the sudden halving of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

“Trump and Republicans are coming after Head Start, and today’s cuts are just the beginning,” said Whip Clark. “Now, child care will be more expensive and even harder to find. This is a direct attack on millions of families who are working overtime to pay their bills and give their kids a great start. Everything Republicans campaigned on was a lie — they don't care about making life easier and more affordable. Their only goal is to steal from taxpayers in order to help the rich get richer.”

This morning, the Trump administration abruptly closed five of ACF’s ten regional offices, which help to oversee critical federal funding for child care programs. The offices were located in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. The Boston office supports child care programs in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Eliminating these offices will gut oversight and support of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Head Start program, making child care less safe, more expensive, and harder to find for millions of families across the country.

Between today’s layoffs and earlier reductions by the Trump administration, the ACF’s Office of Child Care has lost an estimated half of its workforce. This insufficient staffing will hamper ACF’s ability to implement Biden-Harris actions reducing the cost of child care, raising caregivers’ pay, and increasing the quality of early education in classrooms nationwide.

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