Illinois Receives Notices Federal Child Care Funds Have Been Frozen
The Trump Administration sent letters Tuesday night to five states, including Illinois, suspending approximately $10 billion in funds for programs that support child care and social services, citing concerns related to fraud and misuse of the funds. In Illinois, about $1 billion is being frozen. The funding suspension applies to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides cash assistance to low-income families; Child Care and Development Block Grant money, which subsidizes child care programs; and Social Services Block Grants (SSBG), which fund child welfare services, including foster care.

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the states to provide data on all recipients of federal funding, including names, Social Security numbers and birth dates, as well as other detailed information. The funding will remain suspended until the HHS Administration for Children and Families can conduct a review and determine whether the states are in compliance with federal requirements. In addition to Illinois, the administration is withholding funds meant for California, Colorado, Minnesota and New York.

Approximately 100,000 low-income, working Illinois families receive child care funded through the Child Care Assistance Program that is partly funded by the Child Care and Development Block Grant. The TANF funding helps to support thousands of child care providers throughout the state, and SSBG funding is directed to hundreds of organizations across Illinois that support human service providers.

Support Federal Advocacy on Graduate Education Access
Nurses are encouraged to act now by signing a national petition urging the U.S. Dept. of Education to recognize graduate nursing education as a professional degree under federal policy. Broad participation is critical to ensuring nurses can continue advancing their education and meeting patient and community needs.

The American Nurses Association (ANA), along with nursing organizations nationwide, is calling on the Department to revise its proposed rule defining “professional degree” programs to explicitly include graduate nursing education.

Under the current proposal, nursing is excluded from the federal definition of professional degrees. If finalized, this policy would significantly limit nurses’ access to federal student loans when pursuing advanced degrees—creating new financial barriers, restricting workforce growth and ultimately affecting patient care.

Please share this petition widely with your nursing teams. Broad participation from the nursing community will strengthen this advocacy effort and help ensure policies support—not hinder—the future of the nursing workforce.

In December, the American Hospital Association sent a letter to the U.S. Dept. of Education, supporting the inclusion of nurses as well as other healthcare professionals in the federal definition of professional degrees. Federal recognition of all healthcare professionals is paramount to ensuring an adequate healthcare workforce and access to the services they provide.

HRSA Updates Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) this week released updated cervical cancer screening guidelines, which include a new option for self-collection of samples for screening. HRSA said the inclusion of self-collection as a screening option aligns with the American Cancer Society’s new cervical cancer screening guidelines released in December 2025. The guidelines also designate high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) testing as the preferred screening method for average-risk women ages 30-65, while pap smears are recommended for average-risk women ages 21-29. HRSA said the guidelines include new language requiring most insurance plans to cover any additional testing needed to complete screenings for malignancies, beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

New FDA Guidance on Wellness Products, Clinical Decision Support Software
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released two new guidance documents. One document applies to low-risk wellness products, which includes certain wearable devices, while the other document is related to clinical decision support software. The guidance on low-risk wellness products clarifies the FDA’s interpretation of a provision within section 520 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act that states software is intended “for maintaining or encouraging a healthy lifestyle and is unrelated to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention, or treatment of a disease or condition” and is not considered a device under the law. The guidance applies to low-risk “general wellness products” designed to encourage a general state of health or healthy activity, or products that are intended to relate to the role of a healthy lifestyle by helping reduce the risk or impact of certain chronic conditions when it is understood that healthy lifestyle choices may play an important role in health outcomes for that condition.

The clinical decision support software guidance clarifies the FDA’s interpretation of a separate provision within section 520 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. Specifically, the guidance seeks to define the types of clinical decision support software functions that are excluded from the definition of “device” by the four criteria identified in the law. It provides examples of how the FDA intends to consider clinical decision support software functions as non-device functions, medical device functions and device functions subject to FDA enforcement discretion.