From DC: Housing Funds at Risk, Medicaid Data to ICE, HHS Reinterprets Public Benefits, DOJ Targets Language Access

July 18, 2025

From DC is Justice in Aging's weekly roundup of national news and resources about issues impacting older adults. To receive From DC in your inbox as soon as its published, sign up for our mailing list.

Here’s what we’re watching in Washington:

Urge Congress to Protect Fair Housing Funding

The Trump Administration is seeking to eliminate funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s fair housing grants for nonprofits fighting housing discrimination. Consistent with the Administration’s budget requests, the House of Representatives’ HUD budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 zeroes out funding for HUD’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP).

HUD’s FHIP program funds nonprofits to investigate housing discrimination, educate communities about fair housing rights, and provide help with or legal representation in fair housing cases. Earlier this year, the Administration also cancelled grants for nearly 70 FHIP agencies, leading to ongoing litigation.

FHIP agencies play a major role in the country’s fair housing enforcement system, and more than 75% of fair housing complaints are handled by FHIP organizations. Each year, the majority of fair housing complaints involve disability discrimination, which is an issue often faced by older adults.

Read more about fair housing issues affecting older adults and people with disabilities, and sign on to the National Fair Housing Alliance’s letter urging Congress to protect fair housing funding. Organizations are encouraged to sign on by this Monday, July 21. Individuals can also sign and circulate this petition calling on Congress to fully fund fair housing programs.

Medicaid Enrollees’ Personal Data to be Shared with ICE

According to an Associated Press report, the personal data of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees will be shared with federal immigration officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Highly personal information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and race and ethnicity will be shared with ICE and will reportedly be used to identify and locate immigrants for deportation.

The weaponizing of Medicaid and the personal information of its enrollees is deeply shocking and violates longstanding protections against the sharing of personal data. This disclosure impacts the privacy of all people enrolled in Medicaid, regardless of their immigration status, including U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, and all other immigrants.

This action comes one month after previous news reports that the information of Medicaid enrollees in seven states was shared with the Department of Homeland Security. For more information, see our previous statement condemning the sharing of Medicaid enrollees’ data with immigration officials and our list of resources.Justice in Aging is monitoring these developments and will keep our network informed as we learn more.

New HHS Notice Re-Interpreting PRWORA and Definition of “Federal Public Benefit”

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a notice changing its longstanding interpretation of the term “federal public benefit” under the 1996 welfare law (also known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, or PRWORA). The notice, which went into effect immediately, restricts eligibility for “federal public benefit” programs to certain “qualified immigrants,” excluding many lawfully residing immigrants.

HHS now considers an additional 13 programs as federal public benefits, including Health Center Programs, the Community Block Services Great, the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program, Head Start, and more. HHS notes that any program not enumerated in the notice could still be determined a federal public benefit in subsequent program-specific guidance.

The notice is open for a 30-day comment period ending on August 13 and is similar to notices issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor, and Department of Justice re-interpreting PRWORA. These notices upend decades of federal interpretation of public benefits law and may harm older immigrants and organizations serving them.

Although the notice does not impact eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, these notices, combined with the new restrictions in H.R. 1 and other anti-immigrant policies, represent an assault on immigrant communities across the country.

Justice in Aging is analyzing the notices and working with partners to ensure that older immigrants are not harmed by these changes. For an analysis of the HHS notice, see this resource from the National Immigration Law Center.

DOJ Issues Memo Undermining Language Access

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo to all federal agencies on implementation of Executive Order (EO) 14224, which designated English as the official language of the United States. The new DOJ memo operationalizes the EO by rescinding prior LEP guidance for recipients of federal funding and temporarily suspending existing resources like LEP.gov.

In addition, the memo encourages other federal agencies to review their own LEP guidance to ensure compliance with EO 14224, consider English-only services, use technology and AI to reduce translation costs, include a disclaimer that English is the official language when providing multilingual services, and redirect funds to English language education. DOJ plans to conduct a review of its non-English services and issue new guidance for federal agencies on prioritizing English within the next 180 days.

Justice in Aging will continue to monitor the Trump Administration’s implementation of EO 14224 to ensure that older adults with LEP are not discriminated against in accessing services. Read our full statement about EO 14224.