What to know about Trump administration freezing federal child care funds

The Trump administration has said it is freezing child care funds to all states until they provide more verification and administrative data about the programs in a move fueled by a series of fraud schemes at Minnesota day care centers run by Somali residents.

All 50 states will be impacted by the review, but the Republican administration is focusing most of its ire on the blue state of Minnesota. Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement Wednesday that he was “exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical childcare services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding.”

Minnesota will face additional hurdles to restart child care funding by needing to provide even more verification for child care centers in the state that are suspected of fraud. The administration is also calling for an audit of some Minnesota child care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in the state in recent years.

It is unclear how much more robust the verification process for states will be than it was before the new measures were implemented.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill called it a response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country” in a social media post announcing the change on Tuesday. Officials are also requiring all states to provide additional verification to get child care funds.

Here are some things to know about these moves:

More verification needed for all states to get child care funds

All 50 states will have to provide additional levels of verification and administrative data before they receive more funding from the Child Care and Development Fund, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson. However, before Minnesota can receive child care funds again, it will have to provide even more verification for child care centers in that state that are suspected of fraud, such as attendance and licensing records, past enforcement actions and inspection reports.

In his post on Tuesday, O’Neill said all Administration for Children and Families payments nationwide would require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent, but the HHS spokesperson said Wednesday that the additional verifications only apply to CCDF payments.

Walz says Trump is politicizing the issue

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, said in a social media post that fraudsters are a serious issue that the state has spent years cracking down on but that this move is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

State Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy condemned the move in a statement Wednesday.

“Republicans are playing sick games and winning devastating prizes,” Murphy said. “And now, tens of thousands of Minnesota families will pay the price as Donald’s Trump’s agents strip away crucial funding. Our day care system is already stressed; this reckless decision could force a collapse that affects all of us.”

Fraud investigations could stretch to other programs, states

The administration launched efforts in recent weeks to track down fraud in other programs in Minnesota and is looking at fraud in other states. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that the administration is considering similar fraud investigations in other blue states, such as California and New York.

The administration will continue to send officers to investigate “potential fraud sites” in Minnesota and deport undocumented immigrants, Leavitt said, adding that the Department of Homeland Security is considering plans to denaturalize citizens.

The Department of Labor is also investigating the state’s unemployment insurance program, Leavitt said. The administration this month threatened to withhold SNAP food aid funding from Democratic-controlled states, including Minnesota, unless they provide information about people receiving assistance. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in December sent Minnesota a letter threatening to disqualify it from SNAP and cut funding unless it recertified the eligibility for over 100,000 households and interviewed them in-person within 30 days, according to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota’s attorney general, who Leavitt criticized.

Attention focused on Minnesota

The announcement came a day after U.S. Homeland Security officials conducted a fraud investigation in Minneapolis, questioning workers at unidentified businesses. Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the cases, capitalizing on them to target the Somali diaspora in the state, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S.

In his post Tuesday, O’Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video last week claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud.

Meanwhile, there are concerns about harassment that home-based day care providers and members of the Somali community nationwide might face amid the vitriol, including Trump’s comments earlier this month, referring to Somali immigrants as “garbage.” Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown released a statement about home-based day care providers being harassed and accused of fraud, saying, “Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home.”