President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that it is withholding social safety net funding for programs that support needy families with children in five Democratic-led states over concerns about fraud.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the programs, said it will require the states to provide extra documentation to access the funds, and it said the move is intended to ensure the resources are used lawfully. HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement, “Families who rely on child care and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose.”
HHS said in a statement that it “identified concerns that these benefits intended for American citizens and lawful residents may have been improperly provided to individuals who are not eligible under federal law.” The administration has not laid out details about the fraud allegations.
HHS said the targeted states are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, and that they had been notified. The plan to withhold the funds was first reported by The New York Post.
The targeted programs include the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes day care for low-income households, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides cash assistance and job training. The programs also include the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that supports several different social service programs.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ office said the resources support families in need and help them access food and much more, and it criticized the idea that the federal government would target the most needy children. “These resources support families in need and help them access food and much more. If true, it would be awful to see the federal government targeting the most needy families and children this way,” the Polis office said in a statement.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said earlier in the day that the state is prepared to take the administration to court. “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,” Hochul said.
Trump himself did not speak on specific details of the withholding plan, but he proclaimed on social media Tuesday, “The Fraud Investigation of California has begun.” A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Tara Gallegos, said via email that “Donald Trump is a deranged, habitual liar whose relationship with reality ended years ago,” and she defended California’s record on stamping out fraud in government programs.
New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Trump’s move to halt funding aims to score political points rather than to stop fraud. She said in a statement, “It’s our job to serve the people most in need and most at risk — no matter what state they live in or what political party their family or elected representatives belong to,” adding, “To use the power of the government to harm the neediest Americans is immoral and indefensible.”
The administration has raised fraud concerns for months as it has sought to hold up money for programs including child care and SNAP, the country’s main food aid program. Federal child care funding has been on hold in Minnesota since late last month amid investigations into alleged fraud schemes at day care centers run by people with family roots in Somalia, and HHS officials said no state will receive child care funds without providing more verification.
The administration also raised fraud claims involving SNAP and said it would halt administrative money to states—most of them Democratic-run—unless they provide requested details on recipients, a process that could take months. The administration has said information provided by most GOP-controlled states shows fraud may be worse than previously believed, but it has not provided the data or detailed reports.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told Fox News on Tuesday that his agency also plans to audit Minnesota’s Medicaid bills in search of potential fraud. The Associated Press reported that Oz did not provide any evidence of fraud that had been found.