This isn’t “tone policing.” It’s funding leverage used to force programs to rewrite reality.

A Head Start director says her non-competitive renewal application was returned with instructions to remove certain words, including “race,” “racial,” “racism,” “equity,” “belonging,” “inclusion,” and “LGBTQIA 2S+.” She later received a much longer list (~200 terms) labeled “words to limit or avoid in government documents.”

The catch: Head Start programs are legally required to describe who they serve and how, including children with disabilities and community demographics, but many of the very words that describe those obligations are on the “avoid” list.

If this is how federal grants get processed now, it’s not policy debate. It’s administrative speech control. And it rhymes with Susie Wiles’s description of OMB/Project 2025 architect Russ Vought as “a right-wing absolute zealot.”

According to a sworn declaration filed in federal court, a Head Start program director (“Mary Roe”) received her routine non-competitive renewal application back from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) with specific instructions to remove language.

The initial list targeted: race, racial, racism, equity, belonging, inclusion, LGBTQIA 2S+.

Then came an extended list of approximately 200 words and phrases “to limit or avoid in government documents.”

The legal problem: Head Start programs are required by law to describe demographics, detail services for children with disabilities, and report on community characteristics. But prohibited terms include language essential for those descriptions.

This isn’t about “preferred framing.” This is withholding federal funding unless programs adopt, or avoid, specific language, regardless of accuracy or legal obligation.

These are routine continuation grants for programs already operating successfully. They shouldn’t be vehicles for linguistic compliance tests.

Russ Vought, Trump’s OMB director and Project 2025 architect, has been described by chief of staff Susie Wiles as “a right-wing absolute zealot.” OMB controls federal grant processes. If grant applications become ideological compliance tests, every federal program becomes subject to this gatekeeping.

When you can’t use the word “disability” in an application for a program legally required to serve children with disabilities, you’re not being asked for clearer language. You're being forced to obscure reality.

When you can’t mention “race” while describing community demographics in a program with civil rights obligations, you’re not improving communication. You're being compelled to violate legal duties or disguise compliance.

This is linguistic capture of federal programs through funding leverage.

Head Start serves nearly 1 million children annually from low-income families, providing early childhood education, health services, nutrition support, and family services.

If their ability to continue operating depends on adopting government-mandated language that contradicts their legal obligations, program integrity becomes secondary to ideological conformity.

That’s not reform. That’s control.

Mary Roe Declaration (Doc. 135-1):
PDF Link

Original Complaint (Doc. 1):
PDF Link

ACLU Case Page (documents hub):
Case Documents

NPR/KUOW Coverage:
News Story

Wiles Interview (Vought quote context):
Vanity Fair