A bipartisan, federal program meant to address and reduce teen pregnancy has been overhauled by the Trump administration to instead focus on abstinence. Now, NPR is reporting that the government has awarded the majority of its funding to an unrelated company with ties to the administration.
According to NPR, $86 million from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP) has been redirected to a company called Guidehouse, an AI-led professional services firm with no apparent ties to teen pregnancy or reproductive health.
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NPR is also reporting that members of the government — including staff at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — are former employees at Guidehouse.
The defunding
Created in 2010, the TPP has historically distributed about $101 million in federal grants annually to organizations that run programs to reduce teen pregnancy and improve sexual and reproductive health.
For the past 16 years, the bipartisan program provided federal funds through a public, competitive process, and money historically went to organizations that ran evidence-based programming to reduce teen pregnancies.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, since 2007 teen birth rates have dropped by about 72%. The Pew Research Center attributes the decline in teen pregnancy in part to better sex education and better access to contraceptives.
But in June, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled 53 of the 67 existing TPP grants, totaling about $67 million, just two years before the five-year grants were set to expire. According to NPR, termination notices sent to grant recipients said the programs no longer aligned with agency priorities and “[normalized] sexual activity for minors.”
The program was then restructured and the administration instead sent out requests for programs that promote abstinence rather than pregnancy prevention and reproductive health.
On Aug. 18, a federal judge blocked the HHS from implementing sweeping changes to the program, after three impacted programs filed a lawsuit.
The $86 million grant
According to NPR, a new legal complaint now alleges the paused funds were quickly sent to a single contractor on the final day of the fiscal year. A federal spending database shows $86 million was sent to Guidehouse, which is owned by private equity firm Bain Capital. The website for the company shows no mention of teen pregnancy or reproductive health.
NPR also reported that the money did not come from the part of the HHS that has historically issued these grants. Instead it came from an agency called the Administration for Children and Families. One of the top people at the agency is Cody Inman, who joined the administration after working at Guidehouse — and he’s not the only former employee now working for the government. At least two other HHS officials also worked there.
A bid protest has been filed by Hennepin County, which had been a grantee of the TPP. According to NPR, the organization argues that the funding to Guidehouse was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion contrary to law and in excess of its statutory authority.”
In a statement to Moneywise, Guidehouse said it brings experience supporting “adolescent health, prevention, and youth development initiatives,” and has previously supported both the Administration for Children and Families and HHS.
“The team proposed for this work supported prior HHS program initiatives and brings directly relevant experience and demonstrated capacity to support programs at national scale,” the statement reads. “Guidehouse competed for this task order through a competitive procurement under the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation procedures. Decisions regarding federal program funding, including the source and allocation of those funds, are made by the government.”
HHS did not respond to Moneywise’s request for comment in time for publication.
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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: $86 million from teen pregnancy prevention program allegedly redirected to Guidehouse, a firm with ties to HHS staff
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