A bipartisan-passed, Trump-signed budget line. A Montana nonprofit serving 21 counties, defunded with no warning. The letter 92 lawmakers just sent, read in full.

ONYX NEWS STAFF — DATELINE: WASHINGTON

2-MINUTE CONTEXT: Congress passed $101 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, and Trump signed it into law as part of his budget bill. With less than a week left in the 2026 fiscal year, the Department of Health and Human Services has distributed about $500,000 of it.

What the Letter Actually Says

Ninety-two lawmakers in the House and Senate signed a letter sent to HHS Friday morning, shared exclusively with NPR. “HHS is obligated to spend this money as directed by Congress,” said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the letter’s lead author. Its core argument is direct: “Withholding these funds deprives teens across the U.S. of vital resources and threatens to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy.”

Who Actually Lost Funding

Grants to dozens of nonprofits, universities, and health departments were cut off abruptly in June — most of them in the third year of a five-year funding cycle, according to the lawmakers’ letter. Roughly 50 organizations had their grants terminated. Bridgercare, a nonprofit in Bozeman, Montana, is one of them. “We truly had no indication that our funding would be cut,” said executive director Stephanie McDowell. “Ultimately we can’t sustain an education program at the scale that we were at, serving 21 counties across the state of Montana without funding.”

“We truly had no indication that our funding would be cut.”— Stephanie McDowell, Executive Director, Bridgercare (Bozeman, MT)

The Longer History Behind This

Congress established the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program in 2010. It has long been a target of the Trump administration and groups like the Heritage Foundation — Trump tried to cut all of its grants during his first term as well, and his 2027 budget request calls for eliminating the program entirely, labeling it “leftist and ineffective.” What makes this fiscal year different is that Trump already signed the $101 million appropriation into law in February — the money in question isn’t contested budget authority; it’s already-approved funding that simply hasn’t been distributed.

THE NUMBERS
$101M total appropriated and signed into law	~$500K distributed as of this reporting
~50 organizations that had grants terminated in June	92 lawmakers who signed the letter to HHS
<1 week remaining in the 2026 fiscal year

WHY THIS MATTERS: This isn’t a dispute over whether Congress should fund this program — that vote already happened, and the president already signed it. The actual question is narrower and more checkable: why hasn’t money that’s legally required to go out the door gone out the door, with days left to do it.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: The fiscal year closes within days. ONYX will track whether HHS responds to the letter or the funding lapses unspent.

SOURCE TRANSPARENCY NPR — original exclusive reporting, direct review of the lawmakers’ letter, September 24–25, 2026