This week, a bipartisan congressional delegation of border representatives wrote a letter to Office of Head Start Acting Director Ann Linehan demanding that the headquarters of Teaching and Mentoring Communities (TMC) remain on the border. Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28), Congressman Filemon Vela (D-TX-34), Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX-16), Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX-23) and Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-15) all signed.

The letter also requests clarification on TMC’s proposed expenditures in the 2017-2018 Head Start grant application, asking why the organization is serving fewer children than in previous years, and how it plans to improve. They request that federal funds not be used to relocate the headquarters away from the border community it has always served.  

“We have come together as border representatives to show concern for low-income children and families in our districts,” said Congressman Henry Cuellar. “TMC was founded on the border community of Laredo in 1971 and has grown from a mobile Migrant Head Start program into a national organization. The organization uses federal grant funds to serve low-income children, and the border has one of the highest percentages of low-income and disadvantaged children in the country.

As a federal appropriator, it is my job to make sure federal taxpayer money is being used efficiently. Our letter to the Office of Head Start seeks answers on how TMC’s recent budget change requests will impact the children and communities they serve. Lastly, for the benefit of our communities on the border, we agree that since TMC was founded and has prospered on the border, its headquarters should remain in Laredo.  

Congressman Cuellar, a tireless advocate for border communities, has spoken out on the TMC relocation issue since it surfaced in the news in early 2017.

Read the letter: /uploadedfiles/congressional_delegation_letter_-_office_head_start.pdf.