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Washington — The Trump administration plans to halt billions of dollars in federal funding for social services programs in five states led by Democrats following allegations of fraud, a Department of Health and Human Services official said Tuesday.
The move will freeze $7 billion for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care Development Fund and roughly $870 million for social services grants that largely benefit children. The states affected are Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado.
The New York Post was first to report that HHS would withhold the funding.
“The best way to help poor families is to end the fraud so that the money that is available for them. And that’s what we’re doing,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., told CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes.
“The states that are affected are not affected because they’re Democratic. They’re affected because they refuse to cooperate with developing plans that would end the fraud. We gave them a warning. We said, show us your plan for ending the fraud and we won’t cut it off. But if you won’t show us a plan, a workable plan, we’re going to cut it off until you do.”
Kennedy said how long the aid is frozen is up to the five states.
“For too long, Democrat-led states and Governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, said in a statement. “Under the Trump Administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.”
The Illinois Department of Human Services said it has not yet received any notification or communication about impacts to its federal funding.
“This is yet another politically-motivated action by the Trump Administration that confuses families and leaves states with more questions than answers. IDHS will provide an update if it is made aware of program or funding changes,” the agency said in a statement.
The decision by the Trump administration comes after HHS announced last week that it froze federal child care funding for Minnesota because of “blatant fraud” in public-assistance programs.
More than 90 people face federal charges as a result of fraud schemes that have been uncovered in Minnesota since 2021. Prosecutors estimate the the total amount of fraud could reach $9 billion. The scandal started with a $250 million COVID-era scheme involving a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which was accused of stealing from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
Since then, federal prosecutors have uncovered “large-scale fraud” in a housing program for seniors and people with disabilities, and a program that provides services to children with autism. The Trump administration is also probing claims of fraud by day care centers in Minnesota, which gained national attention after a conservative YouTube personality named Nick Shirley posted a video that showed him visiting federally backed child care centers around Minneapolis and finding no children there.
CBS News visited several of the centers named by Shirley and found that all but two of the facilities have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months.
President Trump has criticized Minnesota leaders for its handling of the scandal and attacked Somali immigrants, claiming they have “ripped off” the state. Many, but not all, of the defendants charged in the fraud schemes are of Somali descent.
Mr. Trump has attacked California, led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, as “more corrupt” than Minnesota. He said Tuesday in a Truth Social post that “the fraud investigation of California has begun.” The president has not provided evidence of wide-scale fraud in California social services and did not provide further details about a probe involving the state.
Beyond Minnesota, the Trump administration has also not put forth evidence of sweeping fraud schemes in social services in New York, Illinois and Colorado.
Still, over the past several months the Trump administration has turned off the spigot of funding to Democrat-led states and cities, particularly during the historic government shutdown last year. Mr. Trump paused billions of dollars for infrastructure and climate projects, and slashed disaster preparedness grants.
Democrats have accused the administration of playing politics with money that has been approved by Congress.
