The Trump administration announced that it would suspend funding of food stamps and other hunger relief programs in Minnesota just as a federal judge blocked a similar effort to freeze funding for social services amid allegations of widespread fraud in the state.
Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, posted a letter addressed to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota saying that she would suspend payment of $129 million in federal funding from the Agriculture Department, citing unfolding investigations of fraud in Minnesota’s social safety net, which have involved members of the Somali-American community.
In the letter, which included Trump-style insults to Mr. Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, Ms. Rollins said the state government would need to provide “payment justifications” in the next 30 days for funding of services like food stamps to be restarted. It is unclear what that means, and the Agriculture Department did not immediately respond to a question on what information it was requesting.
Just as Ms. Rollins posted the letter on social media, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from freezing roughly $10 billion in federal funding for child care and social services destined for Minnesota and four other Democratic-led states — New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. The Trump administration had blocked the funding while claiming without evidence that there widespread fraud throughout all the states. The states sued in response.
The move by the Agriculture Department on Friday was limited only to Minnesota, and targeted a much smaller pot of funds, a potential signal that the Trump administration was scaling back its effort to freeze funding in other Democratic states.
During last year’s government shutdown, the Trump administration had sought to use the freezing of food stamp payments to apply pressure on Democratic lawmakers to vote to reopen the government. Mr. Trump and his aides repeatedly appealed court orders to tap ample leftover funds to disburse full payments of food stamps. The president had promised to use the fiscal stalemate to slash programs favored by Democrats.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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