Blue States Keep $10 Billion in US Child Care Aid for Now (1)

New York, California, Minnesota and two other Democratic-led states won a court order temporarily blocking the US government from slashing $10 billion in aid for programs that serve vulnerable children and families.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday sided with the blue states after President Donald Trump’s administration accused Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and other state officials of allowing massive fraud in programs supporting child care — a claim the officials deny.

In his brief order, US District Judge Arun Subramanian wrote that the states had shown “good cause” for an order “to protect the status quo” while he decides the merits of the case.

Read More: Blue States Sue US Over $10 Billion Cuts to Child Care Aid

White House officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In their lawsuit filed Thursday, the states — including Illinois and Colorado — accused the administration of freezing the assistance to punish them “for their political leadership.”

The administration has “provided no explanation for why targeting just these five states — each of which, as they have emphasized, has a Democratic governor — is a reasonable response” to “unsubstantiated assertions of nationwide fraud,” according to the suit.

The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Tuesday that it was freezing the funds “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,” DHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in the statement. “This action reflects our commitment to program integrity, fiscal responsibility, and compliance with federal requirements.”

The case is State of New York v. Administration for Children and Families, 26-cv-00172, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Updates with judge’s reasoning in third paragraph.)

--With assistance from Courtney Subramanian and Jennifer A. Dlouhy.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Robert Burnson in San Francisco at rburnson@bloomberg.net;
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Peter Blumberg, Steve Stroth

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