Federal Funds Fight
Suzanne Potter, producer/reporter, California News Service, a bureau of Public News Service.
Yesterday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump Administration’s attempt to freeze $10 billion in federal funding, including an estimated $5 billion for California. Late Thursday, January 8, Bonta filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court challenging a funding freeze imposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week. The Attorneys General of four other blue states joined Bonta in the lawsuit.
The funding benefits millions of Californians, including children, families, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities, through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund, and the Social Services Block Grant, according to a news release.
Meanwhile, Home-based child care providers in California are slamming the Trump administration’s actions.
“These funding freezes, even if it’s temporary, will result in families losing care,” said Alexa Frankenberg, executive director of Child Care Providers United, a union representing 70,000 home-based family child-care providers in the Golden State. “And it also has the potential to really ravage our economy, with employers facing unpredictable workforce shortages if families need to deal with these child-care emergencies.”
Allegations of fraud
It all began with allegations of fraud at day-care centers in Minnesota. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement to the New York Post that the administration is targeting California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. In his words, “For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch.”
Frankenberg said the rhetoric from the Trump administration has unfairly targeted certain ethic groups, alleging federal funds are being used to help “non-citizens.” She added that several home day-care centers in the San Diego area have received recent in-person and online threats that she called “completely unacceptable.”
“And unfortunately, a lot of this has been directed at Black and immigrant-population providers,” she said, “which is leading some extremists to show up in front of their houses and threaten the safety and well-being of children in their child care.”
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that “the fraud investigation of California has begun,” without providing any proof of wrongdoing. California officials have vowed to fight the administration’s latest attempt to withhold federal funds from “blue” states.
