U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attend the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Committee event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA on May 22, 2025.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would freeze $10 billion in federal funding for certain child care and family assistance programs in five states, citing “grave concerns about widespread fraud” in state-administered programs.
The five states subject to the freeze are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, all of which are led by Democrats.
The measure applies to three programs overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families: the Child Care Development Fund, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and the Social Services Block Grant.
The move comes a day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz withdrew his bid for a third term due to political fallout from widespread fraud in the state’s social services programs, including child care services, which federal prosecutors estimate has cost more than $9 billion.
“Families who rely on child care and family support programs deserve confidence that these resources are being used for their lawfully intended purposes,” Health Department Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said 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 and nearly $2.4 billion in CCDF funds were frozen. Nearly $840 million in social welfare block grant funding was frozen.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker criticized President Donald Trump’s freeze.
“Instead of making it more affordable for families, President Trump is trying to strip child care costs away from people who are just trying to go to work,” Pritzker wrote in a post on X.
“Thousands of people rely on these programs, and now their livelihoods are at risk,” Pritzker wrote. “It’s wrong and cruel. We will do everything we can to protect Illinoisans.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted: “President Trump is threatening to freeze $10 billion in child care funding in blue states to make life harder and more expensive for children and families. This is vindictive and cruel. And we will fight with all our heart.”
HHS announced Monday that it is rescinding a series of child care rules put in place under the Biden administration. This provision would “require states to pay child care providers before attendance is verified and before child care is provided.”
“This change would repeal provisions in the 2024 Child Care Development Fund Regulations that weakened oversight and increased the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse in federally funded state child care, including the program currently under investigation in Minnesota,” HHS said in a statement Monday.
Last week, the department froze all of Minnesota’s federal child care funding, totaling about $185 million annually.
