Trump administration to freeze $10 billion in aid to five Democratic states

The Trump administration plans to freeze about $10 billion in federal funding for child care subsidies, social services and cash assistance to low-income families in five Democratic-controlled states: Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. Two people familiar with the matter told The Times that roughly $7 billion of the pause would affect the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, nearly $2.4 billion would come from the Child Care Development Fund and about $870 million would be taken from social services grants.

The funding pause could jeopardize programs that serve hundreds of thousands of low-income households in the five states. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Andrew Nixon, cited "massive amounts of fraud" as the reason for the freeze but did not provide evidence for four of the states.

The planned freeze appears linked to a large welfare fraud scheme in Minnesota; the administration last week paused $185 million in annual aid to Minnesota day care centers after investigators said multiple fraud schemes there had caused billions in losses. The Minnesota case involved dozens of people, largely members of the Somali diaspora, charged with stealing hundreds of millions from a pandemic-era child feeding program, the report said.

Key Topics

Politics, Trump Administration, Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois