The Trump administration is freezing billions of dollars in child care grants and family assistance in five Democratic-led states, in a move expected to affect hundreds of thousands of low-income households, citing what it says are concerns around potential fraud.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it had frozen the grants in New York, California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, saying it has “serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs.” The department did not provide any evidence of fraud in those states.
Democratic leaders said the funding cuts were politically motivated, while the Trump administration said it is shoring up the integrity of the system.
“Our kids should not be political pawns in a fight Donald Trump seems to have with blue state governors,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said, calling the decision “vindictive” and “cruel” and vowing to fight it in court.
The funding freeze comes as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) announced this week that he was dropping his bid for reelection amid intense scrutiny over welfare fraud investigations in his state. The Trump administration paused child care payments to multiple Minnesota day cares in December following allegations that they improperly collected millions of federal dollars.
In the latest move, nearly $2.4 billion in child care grants have been frozen, as well as $7.35 billion in temporary grants for needy families and $869 million in social services funds, HHS said Tuesday. Together, these programs help cover child care costs for qualifying low-income families, and assist with housing, food and home utility costs.
Child care costs are rising faster than overall inflation in most U.S. states. U.S. families spent between 9 percent and 16 percent of their median income on full-day care for one child in 2022, according to the National Database of Childcare Prices, the latest available official data.
Allegations of day care fraud have become a political flash point among conservatives in recent weeks after a GOP influencer filmed himself visiting federal subsidized day cares in Minneapolis amid a growing fraud probe in the state. Federal prosecutors initiated the probe several years ago.
Many of the fraud defendants are of Somali descent, and Walz has accused Republicans of politicizing the issue and demonizing the Somali immigrant community.
Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, formerly the state’s governor, called the latest funding freeze “downright shameful.”
“Trump is ripping away child care and resources from states that didn’t vote for him,” he said on social media. “Colorado families are paying the price for the President’s reckless pursuit of political retribution.”
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