Jan 19, 2026
The Trump administration plans to freeze more than $10 billion in federal funding for child care and social services across five Democratic-led states, a move officials say is tied to concerns about improper use of taxpayer dollars, according to the New York Post.
The move comes as child care is already out of reach for many families (1). A national poll by global children’s charity Theirworld found that 69% of U.S. parents struggle to afford child care, while 28% of families who previously relied on child care said they were forced to stop because the cost became unmanageable (2).
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The funding pause would be carried out by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and would affect three major safety-net programs: the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant (3). The freeze would impact California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.
The largest portion of the blocked funding, at least $7.35 billion, comes from TANF, which provides cash assistance and employment support to families with children.
Nearly $2.4 billion in child care funding from the CCDF would also be paused, along with an additional $869 million from the Social Services Block Grant.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand criticized the move as politically motivated, warning it could harm children and low-income families across the state.
"Trump is threatening to freeze child care funding in New York and targeting our children for political retribution,” Gillibrand wrote in a post on X (4). “It’s immoral and indefensible."
Misuse of social services funds
Concerns about potential misuse of federal social services funding have been mounting for months, with scrutiny focused in particular on Minnesota.
In December, the Department of Health and Human Services sent letters to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey raising questions about whether taxpayer-funded programs were administered in accordance with eligibility rules. Those concerns prompted federal reviews that remain ongoing.
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At the national level, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates the federal government loses between $231 billion and $521 billion annually to improper payments, including fraud, waste and abuse (5).
Federal officials have also cited demographic shifts in Minnesota as part of the broader context. According to the Pew Research Center, the state was home to an estimated 130,000 undocumented immigrants in 2023, accounting for about 2% of the population (6).
Public scrutiny intensified after YouTuber Nick Shirley posted videos from visits to several Minnesota child care centers that collectively received more than $110 million in public funding.
Shirley said one facility drew his attention after he noticed its name, Quality Learning Center, appeared misspelled and was approved to serve nearly 100 children. When Shirley and his team visited the site, the center appeared unoccupied, despite records showing it received nearly $2 million through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program in 2025.
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“This is a prime example of the billions of dollars in fraud happening right now in Minnesota,” Shirley said in the video.
The heightened scrutiny coincided with Walz’s announcement Monday that he would not seek a third term as governor.
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Lawmakers push back
While prosecutors have described serious fraud concerns in Minnesota, Democratic lawmakers argue the funding freeze goes far beyond accountability and veers into politics.
“It has nothing to do with fraud and everything to do with politics,” said Scott Wiener in a statement (7). He pointed to Florida’s history of large-scale Medicaid fraud, despite the state not being included in the freeze.
He accused the Trump administration of using federal funding as leverage, warning the move could leave children and low-income families without support.
Federal child care assistance already reaches only a fraction of families who qualify. In 2021, about 11.5 million children were eligible for child care subsidies under federal rules, but just 1.8 million received help, roughly 15%. Eligibility is even narrower under state rules, which covered roughly 8 million children, with subsidies reaching about 22% of that group.
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The pause could jeopardize programs serving hundreds of thousands of households across the five affected states. While officials have said the Minnesota fraud cases informed the broader decision, no evidence has surfaced showing comparable, widespread fraud in the other states.
Critics also note the move follows a broader pattern. During last year’s government shutdown, hundreds of federally funded projects, many in Democratic-led states and cities, were delayed or canceled. Disaster preparedness funds were also cut before being restored by court order.
As of Monday evening, officials in New York and California said they had not received formal notice of the freeze, while representatives in Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
For now, the investigations continue and families across five states are left waiting to see whether billions in federal support and the services it funds will ultimately be restored or remain caught in the crossfire.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
New York Post (1); Act For Early Years (2); Fox News (3); X (4); Government of Accountability Office (5); Pew Research (6); California Senate (7); The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (8); New York Times (9).
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based Staff Reporter at Moneywise, where she covers the intersection of personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, a postgraduate certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Master’s degree in American Journalism from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her work has been featured in publications including Apple News, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Her Campus Media and The Click.
