HHS Officials Sought Extra Money to House Migrant Children

Federal health officials prepared to move $263 million into a program for housing migrant children separated from their families just a week before the president announced a halt to the practice of removing children from their parents, according to an agency document obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The document and interviews with current and former federal staffers show the growing cost of housing a sudden influx of children separated from their parents at the border, a product of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of arresting all people who enter the U.S. illegally.

One Department of Health and Human Services employee, ...