U.S. President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attend a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission event, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The Trump administration on Tuesday said it was freezing $10 billion in federal grant funds for certain child care and family assistance programs in five states because of “serious concerns about widespread fraud” in state-administered programs.
All five states targeted by the freeze — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York — are led by Democrats.
The action applies to three programs overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and Families: Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grant.
The move comes a day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz dropped his bid for a third term amid political fallout from widespread fraud in social service programs in the state, including child-care services, which a federal prosecutor has estimated cost more than $9 billion.
“Families who rely on child care and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,” said Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill in a statement.
“This action reflects our commitment to program integrity, fiscal responsibility, and compliance with federal requirements,” O’Neill said.
More than $7.3 billion in TANF funds have been frozen, and nearly $2.4 billion in CCDF funds have been frozen. Nearly $840 million in Social Services Block Grant funding was frozen.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker blasted President Donald Trump for the freeze.
“Rather than making it more affordable for families, Trump is stripping away child care from those just trying to go to work,” Pritzker wrote in a post on X.
“Thousands depend on these programs, and now their livelihoods are at risk,” Pritzker wrote. “It’s wrong and cruel — we’ll take every step possible to defend Illinoisians.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a tweet, wrote, “Trump is threatening to freeze $10 billion in child care funding in blue states to make life harder and more expensive for kids and families. It’s vindictive. It’s cruel. And we’ll fight it with every fiber of our being.”
HHS on Monday announced that it was rescinding a series of child-care rules implemented under the Biden administration “that required states to pay providers before verifying any attendance and before care was delivered.”
“The change will roll back provisions in the 2024 Child Care and Development Fund rule that weakened oversight and increased the risk of waste, fraud and abuse in federally-funded state child care — including programs now under investigation in Minnesota,” HHS said in a statement on Monday.
The department last week froze all federal child care funding for Minnesota, which totals about $185 million annually.
