While Washington, DC typically slows down in the summer months as both locals and members of Congress flee the heat and humidity, that hasn’t been the case so far this year. Instead, there has been a blaze of activity related to Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 appropriations and the budget reconciliation package passed by the House of Representatives and currently awaiting Senate action. Below is a roundup of recent events that have a direct impact on early education.
Budget and Appropriations
On May 2, President Trump released his FY26 “skinny budget,” officially kicking off an appropriations process that needs to be completed before government funding expires at the end of September. New America’s Education and Work program has a full analysis of the skinny budget on all things education, ranging from early education to higher education and the workforce. To quickly recap, the skinny budget calls for eliminating the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) program as well as the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program that helps colleges fund campus child care for low-income parents. Despite earlier reports that the budget would propose eliminating funding for Head Start, Head Start was not explicitly mentioned in the skinny budget.
We received more information related to budget specifics on May 30 when the Trump administration unveiled additional details related to its proposal to cut about $163 billion in federal spending in the next fiscal year. The budget calls for a 26 percent reduction for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a 15 percent reduction for the Department of Education, a department that the White House claims “is responsibly winding down.”
The full budget builds on the provisions included in the skinny budget, while also calling for level funding for both Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). In response, the National Head Start Association released a statement noting that level funding without accounting for inflation, workforce competition, or increased needs is “effectively a deep cut.” The budget also calls for “a set of reforms” to Head Start intended to cut red tape, increase parental choice, promote parental engagement, and remove “DEI” from the program. No concrete details were provided regarding what these reforms might entail. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are both level funded, though IDEA is targeted for consolidation.
There are early signs that the appropriations process will likely be even more drawn-out than usual this year. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins has stated that the process is “sort of at a standstill until the reconciliation bill is done.” Currently, House and Senate committees are holding hearings on the FY26 budget request. On May 14, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before both the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions to speak about his agency’s budget request. Kennedy mostly defended the billions of dollars in cuts proposed for HHS, while also touting the importance of Head Start in his opening statement.
His counterpart at the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, appeared before the House Appropriations Committee on May 21 and the Senate Appropriations Committee’s education subcommittee on June 3. Senators of both parties expressed discontent over the deep cuts that are planned for the department’s Office for Civil Rights. The appropriations process will continue to play out throughout the summer months, with markups before the House Appropriations Committee for the Labor, HHS, and Education bill scheduled for July 21 and July 24.
Budget Reconciliation
The other big story playing out at the federal level with a direct impact on early education is the budget reconciliation package that’s currently awaiting Senate action. I wrote an analysis of the package once it passed the House of Representatives on a 215-214 vote on May 22. Overall, while the package contains some worthwhile provisions, such as a boost to the Child Tax Credit and the Employer-Provided Child Care Credit, these positives are outweighed by drastic cuts to both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Provisions in the bill that require more frequent eligibility redeterminations and increased red tape could force early educators and their children off the program.
New numbers recently published by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provide a sobering reminder of the high stakes attached to the reconciliation package. Specifically, the CBO estimates that the House-passed bill would increase the number of people without health insurance by almost 11 million in 2034. The CBO also estimates that the bill would increase the federal deficit by about $2.4 trillion by 2034. Separately, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently estimated that the bill would increase the debt by almost $3 trillion, with that number rising to about $5 trillion if temporary provisions are made permanent. Much of the deficit impact is caused by the roughly $4 trillion tax cut that’s at the heart of the reconciliation package and that primarily benefits the wealthy.
Currently, House conservatives are demanding deeper spending cuts to lessen the impact on the deficit. Assuming the reconciliation package passes the Senate by its self-imposed July 4 deadline, it will then have to head back to the House for passage.