HHS isn’t allowed to block daycare funds to states says Judge Arun Subramanian. Two days ago, Health & Human Services announced they were freezing the unchecked flow of funds for child care and other family assistance programs to five states.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today froze access to certain federal child care and family assistance funds for California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York following serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs.

“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 Secretary Jim O’Neill. “This action reflects our commitment to program integrity, fiscal responsibility, and compliance with federal requirements.”

The action applies to three programs overseen by HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) — Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grant. In letters sent to the governors of the five states, ACF notified them that access to these funding streams is now restricted pending further review, which impacts the following totals:

Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF): nearly $2.4 billion

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): $7.35 billion

Social Services Block Grant (SSBG): $869 million

That is a LOT of our taxpayer dollars flowing back into the states. I have zero problems with the funding freeze. Why? Because as we are seeing in Minnesota, those who are supposed to be ensuring there is no fraud, waste, or abuse have either looked the other way or, in some cases, been involved in the fraud. 

Before anyone blathers on about how this funding freeze will harm the children…if there is fraud, the ones being directly affected … ARE THE CHILDREN!

All five states sued to keep the money flowing. Isn’t that telling?

BREAKING–We have filed our 50th lawsuit against the Trump Administration, challenging its illegal and harmful actions. It addresses the withholding of funds for the neediest among us, including access to child care. I will always fight for Colorado. https://t.co/bPnDCksNUM

— Phil Weiser (@pweiser) January 9, 2026

They’d rather waste millions of taxpayer dollars on lawsuits instead of looking under the hood to see if any fraud is being committed. They don’t want to look closely at the entities within the state that are being funded to determine if they are legitimate or not. 

The lawsuit, filed by New York and joined by California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, came two days after the administration moved to shut off the funding to the five states. The Department of Health and Human Services, which distributes the funds, cited without evidence “potential” fraud and misuse by ineligible noncitizens like undocumented immigrants across the five states, invoking a major welfare fraud scheme that has rocked Minnesota.

The freeze could jeopardize programs that serve hundreds of thousands of low-income households in the five states, including more than 200,000 families in New York and around 100,000 families in Illinois. New York will run out of funds for the affected programs by the end of January unless the money is unblocked, according to the governor’s office.

The lack of a clear reason for the pause has stirred state officials to accuse the administration of using low-income families and children as “political pawns” to punish perceived enemies and political opponents. Those charged with fraud in Minnesota were accused of abusing a pandemic-era program for feeding children, not the ones the administration has targeted, and were overwhelmingly U.S. citizens.

I just love how the New York Times frames this. There’s no good reason for this pause and it was a different kind of fraud taking place in Minnesota. Quite the pretzel logic isn’t it?

The five states involved were asked to provide information as to whether the recipients of the funds are legitimate. As in, is that REALLY a daycare for children? Or an empty building with a misspelled sign? 

HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill:

To prevent fraud, we asked states to provide receipts before sending taxpayer money for child care.

Five blue states sued and an activist Biden-appointed judge just ordered us to stop asking.

What are they afraid of?

We will comply with the court, but we will fight. We will appeal. We will keep asking questions.

We will stop the fraud.
@HHSGov @ACF_Adams @ACFHHS

Well, Elon has part of the answer to that. 

It is obviously fair and normal to ask for receipts before blindly wiring money or fraud will grow to infinity!

The blue states are suing for one reason: to keep the fraud going. https://t.co/acczlpOVNL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2026

They love the flow of other people’s money into their states to be spent Of course, all the Democrats across those five states are thrilled with Judge Subramaniam’s ruling. 

The courts are ruling against Donald Trump yet again tonight.

A federal judge just blocked his unlawful funding freeze for child care and other critical programs in Illinois with a temporary restraining order.

His abuse of power against the families of this state won’t stand.

— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) January 10, 2026

I would argue that the abuse of power is that of IGNORING the fraud. The abuse of power is turning a blind eye to the fact that money isn’t being spent for the kids. 

Why not open the books? Why not track the payments to determine if the recipients whether it’s child care or a needy family are genuine? If they aren’t receiving the funds, who is? Terrorists?

Because the Democrats don’t care if our tax dollars are being wasted. And they certainly don’t care if the money doesn’t ACKSCHULLY make it to the child or needy family.That’s a feature with them, not a bug. And now we have activist judges who agree fraud doesn’t need to be investigated. 

Feature Photo Credit: bags of money, handcuffs via iStock, cropped and modified