The Trump administration is freezing billions of dollars in federal funding for child care, other social services and food assistance in a handful of states run by Democrats, due to concerns about possible fraud.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it is holding back about $10 billion from the Child Care Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the Social Services Block Grant program. The funding was originally intended for California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.
The total includes at least $7.3 billion in the TANF program for low-income households, $2.4 billion in the child care program, and about $870 million in social service block grants, according to the New York Post.
“For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” an HHS spokesperson told CNN.
The freeze comes soon after the Trump administration announced that it had blocked funding for child care programs in Minnesota amid allegations of significant fraud. However, it was not clear in the states other than Minnesota why the money was being frozen, and no formal notifications or explanations appear to have been provided by the Trump administration.
“This is yet another politically motivated action by the Trump Administration that confuses families and leaves states with more questions than answers,” a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services told CNN.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would contest the funding freeze, if and when the state receives notification. “We’ll fight this with every fiber of our being because our kids should not be political pawns in a fight that Donald Trump seems to have with blue-state governors,” she said.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand portrayed the freeze as an act of political revenge. “To use the power of the government to harm the neediest Americans is immoral and indefensible,” Gillibrand said on social media. “This has nothing to do with fraud and everything to do with political retribution that punishes poor children in need of assistance.”