A group of 28 California Democrats are alleging the Trump administration is acting outside of the law in canceling a pilot program that allowed the state to better implement cash welfare to low income families.
California was “deselected,” alongside Maine, Kentucky, Minnesota and Ohio, in March for a Biden-era program that allowed states to revamp Temporary Assistance For Needy Families in their states. The program was initially established under the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. The Trump administration canceled the pilot programs, claiming it would take a “new approach.”
“We find it appalling that your Department appears willing to disregard California’s duly — and fairly-awarded pilot,” Rep. Judy Chu, alongside other Democrats, wrote in a letter addressed to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and shared exclusively with NOTUS.
While the Trump administration claimed that its predecessors “should not have proceeded with the pilots in the period between the election and the inauguration,” Democrats claim there is nothing in the law that “allows a pilot to be revoked simply because it is in the first year.”
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“Your announcement canceling the pilot contracts cited that the pilot selections were awarded post-election…However, this careful, thorough pilot process was nearly two years in the making and began soon after the law was enacted in 2023,” Democrats wrote to Kennedy.
The Democrats also claimed that the law did not justify the administration’s actions.
“There is no statutory or policy justification for your administration to cancel the pilot awards altogether rather than negotiating such benchmarks in good faith,” the Democrats wrote, going on to claim that the cancellation was a “political maneuver.”
HHS’ decision to rescind California’s participation in the program will “rip away a lifesaving safety net from our constituents, all in the name of funding Republicans’ tax cuts for the wealthy,” the group of Democrats wrote.
HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
TANF, which was established in the 1990s, was once seen as one of Congress’ great bipartisan success stories. But its effectiveness has declined over the years as states have backchannelled money to other priorities — like crisis pregnancy centers, and even Brett Favre. Lawmakers have relied less and less on the program in difficult economic times, opting instead for stimulus checks during the pandemic. The pilot program was specifically intended to allow states to transform TANF, a block-grant style fund, into a success story, giving them flexibility to change work activity requirements and more.
The Trump administration said, however, that it wasn’t interested in the experimentation.
“We have reviewed the legislation, the solicitation for applications, the criteria and performance measures that were identified and the projects that were selected, and unfortunately, they do not reflect this administration’s goals and priorities, particularly related to views on work, performance measures and indicators of family stability and well-being,” ACF Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement.
This action, the group of Democrats say, will delay the necessary grants for low-income communities and puts the program at risk of being defunded or significantly changed by Congress in future budget negotiations.
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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