On the one-year anniversary of Oregon’s first multistate lawsuit challenging federal overreach, Attorney General Dan Rayfield will host a Federal Oversight and Accountability Town Hall with visiting state attorneys general: AG Rob Bonta of California; AG Anne Lopez of Hawaii; AG Aaron Frey of Maine; and AG Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
Our Executive Director, Candice Williams, joined the town hall to ensure our needs are met. Below are her remarks:
Attorney General Rayfield, distinguished Attorneys General Bonta, Ellison, Lopez, and Frey, thank you for the opportunity to share my voice to this important conversation.
My name is Candice Williams, and I lead For All Families Oregon, formerly Family Forward Oregon—an organization that is, itself, a plaintiff in the federal ACLU lawsuit challenging this administration’s illegal attacks on Head Start. I’m here because our families are under attack. Not from a foreign power, but from a federal government that’s turning its back on our children while terrorizing our communities.
We recognize the role state Attorneys General have played in holding this administration to account over the last year. That role is now critically needed to address the deliberate crises being inflicted on our families. The federal government is creating an environment of fear that poisons the very places our children should feel safest.
First, the very illegal defunding we are suing over—the clawback of critical funds for Head Start and child care that steals opportunity from our kids before they even set foot in a kindergarten classroom. But the cruelty doesn’t stop with cuts. It escalates into outright terror.
While they defund the programs that nurture children, they simultaneously empower agencies like ICE to operate in and around our child care facilities, our schools, and our churches. This is the brutal reality your offices are positioned to confront. So our call to you is direct: We need this coalition to take this fight into 2026 and beyond to:
- Continue to investigate and sue to restore every dollar of early childhood funding that has been illegally withheld; and
- Challenge the ICE directives that target sensitive locations and hold collaborators accountable.
You have stood as a firewall. That firewall is now needed around our preschools and our playgrounds. We stand with you and urge you to use your power to protect our communities. Our children and families are counting on you. Thank you.
Watch the full video below.