Unions and Small Businesses Unite to Challenge Unlawful, Politically-Driven Funding Freeze to Child Care and Family Assistance
Trump-Vance Administration Continues Pattern of Illegally Weaponizing Government Funding Against Perceived Political Opponents
San Francisco, Calif. – Two of the nation’s largest unions of public employees and child care providers, AFSCME and SEIU, and a small business advocacy group have united to challenge more than $10 billion in transparently partisan political cuts to programs that help provide child care and family assistance in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The threats continue the Trump-Vance administration’s brazen use of federal funding to threaten and punish its perceived political opponents, and the challenge brought today seeks to stop the cuts and prevent the administration from further weaponizing funding for lifesaving programs.
The challenge, filed today by pro-democracy legal organization Democracy Forward and Beeson, Tayer & Bodine on behalf of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Main Street Alliance, and AFSCME affiliates United Domestic Workers of America (UDW) and AFSCME Councils 31 and 57, argues that not only did a $10 billion funding freeze announced on January 6, 2026, violate the Administrative Procedure Act by ignoring the legally-required process for stopping funding to these essential programs and by targeting the five affected states for improper partisan reasons, but that the Trump-Vance administration is also violating the First Amendment rights of the organization’s members by attempting to stifle speech.
This unlawful funding freeze by the Trump-Vance administration targets and will cause severe harm to communities in vulnerable circumstances, including low-income and single-parent households, and children.
“Defunding child care is a clear attack on working families and child care providers like me. But forcing me to close my doors would do more than put me out of business – it would hurt the kids I love building educational foundations with and the parents who rely on me to get to work every day. I’m proud that my union, Child Care Providers United, is fighting to keep child care accessible to janitors, nurses, and delivery drivers. No one should be forced to choose between taking home a paycheck and the safety of their children. I stand united with providers across the country calling on our courts to reject this illegal funding freeze,” said Nancy Harvey, a licensed family child care provider and the owner of Lil Nancy’s Primary Schoolhouse in Oakland, California, and a member of Child Care Providers United, a partnership between AFSCME and SEIU.
“Child care providers ensure that parents can go to work and kids can thrive,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “These services form the backbone of our economy, but instead of strengthening them, this administration is cruelly and illegally targeting child care providers, children and working parents to settle a political score. We are filing this lawsuit to hold the administration accountable and ensure that essential funding for our communities cannot be withheld simply for political retaliation. AFSCME and the child care providers we represent nationwide will continue to stand with working parents as we demand more for America’s families.”
“For small businesses, child care isn’t a side issue, it’s essential infrastructure,” said Richard Trent, Executive Director of Main Street Alliance. “When this funding is frozen, our employees can’t find or afford care, parents are forced to cut hours or leave jobs, and local businesses lose the stable workforce they depend on. The ripple effects hit entire communities, and small business owners, including the owners and educators at these child care businesses, are left paying the price for a politically motivated decision that makes it harder for families and local economies to survive.”
“The administration’s decision to target child care providers is the latest example of its autocratic, retribution agenda that is cruel and makes no one’s life better or easier. It should concern every single American that the president has chosen to target children and communities in our own nation,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “Our clients and the families they serve will suffer if these clearly unlawful funding cuts are allowed to continue. We are honored to work with unions and small businesses to fight back against this repeated attempt to harm people and our democracy.”
Over the past year, the Trump-Vance administration has repeatedly admitted to terminating federal grants in retribution because the recipients were located in “blue states.” Consistent with that pattern, administration officials, including those at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), have used vague and unsubstantiated allegations of “fraud” in five Democratic-led states as pretext to target those states and their residents. Earlier this month, ACF announced that $10 billion funding would be “frozen” on January 6, 2026, targeting funding in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.
The case is AFSCME v HHS. The legal team at Democracy Forward on this case includes Yenisey Rodríguez, Kevin E. Friedl, Shiva Kooragayala, Cortney Robinson Henderson, Joel McElvain, and Robin F. Thurston.
Read today’s filing here.