SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
For years, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program has provided federal money to organizations all over the country that are working to reduce teen pregnancies through workshops and school programs. The Trump administration canceled those grants suddenly in June, saying they normalize sexual activity for minors. Now NPR has learned from a legal filing that the administration is alleged to have diverted almost all of that money in secret to a contractor with ties to Health Department officials. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin joins us. Thanks so much for being with us.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: Remind us, please, about the original goals of this teen pregnancy program.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah. So this is a pot of about $100 million that has been going out for more than a decade through a public competitive process to dozens of organizations who run programs for teens and their families that teach them about preventing pregnancies. By law, those programs have to be evidence-based, proven to work, and the public health departments and organizations that receive these grants tailor them to their local communities.
So in June, as you mentioned, the Trump administration canceled all of these grants pretty much overnight. Then they sent out a new request for proposals emphasizing abstinence to prevent pregnancy. That was blocked in court, and now there's a legal complaint that this money was rushed out to a single contractor on the last day of the fiscal year.
SIMON: And who's that?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: A federal spending database shows an award of $86 million to Guidehouse, which describes itself as a, quote, "global AI-led professional services firm." It's owned by the private equity firm Bain Capital. There's no mention of teen pregnancy on its website, no obvious evidence that it has any experience in this area.
And notably, the award came from a different part of the Department of Health and Human Services than usually runs this program. It came from an agency called the Administration for Children and Families. And one of the top people at that agency is Cody Inman, who came to work for the Trump administration from Guidehouse. And there are at least two other HHS officials who also worked there. I asked both HHS and Guidehouse about this. HHS declined to comment, citing the litigation, and I didn't receive a response from Guidehouse by my deadline.
SIMON: Who's opposing this bid to try to stop it?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah. The bid protest was filed by Hennepin County in Minnesota, which had been a grantee. They argue that the award to Guidehouse was, quote, "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion contrary to law and in excess of its statutory authority." Here's Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing Hennepin County.
SKYE PERRYMAN: Our focus is going to continue to be to use every legal tool we can to ensure the program's administered as Congress intended.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: The first hearing in front of a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims is scheduled for Tuesday.
SIMON: What's been the reaction to this move?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: I reached out to Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu of California, who recently led a letter urging HHS to restore the funding to grantees for this program. She told me it's deeply concerning to hear that the Trump administration may have diverted tens of millions of dollars from teen pregnancy prevention organizations into what the congresswoman described as a massive consulting contract, and that Congress and the public deserve an explanation. I've also spoken to a few of the past grantees who expressed shock and outrage. Kristin Fairholm runs EyesOpenIowa, which lost its grant earlier this year, and that was a quarter of the organization's budget.
KRISTIN FAIRHOLM: The need is so great in so many areas that sex ed is not being prioritized as much. So we were already short-staffed and under-resourced, and so trying to make up such a large gap has just been hard.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: She told me this award going to Guidehouse ignites feelings of disbelief and rage. She says the program that she was working with was doing important work and getting results. And now, Fairholm says, the government seems to be tearing all of that down.
SIMON: NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks so much.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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