{"id":122938,"date":"2026-01-07T01:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/122938\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:31:12","slug":"trump-admin-plans-to-freeze-billions-in-childcare-funding-to-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/122938\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin plans to freeze billions in childcare funding to California"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration says it\u2019s planning to freeze about $10 billion in federal support for needy families in California and four other Democrat-run states, as the president announced an investigation into unspecified fraud in California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The plans come on the heels of the Trump administration announcing a freeze on all federal payments for child care in Minnesota<\/a>, citing fraud allegations against daycare centers in the state.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Democrat governor, Tim Walz \u2014 who ran for vice president against Donald Trump\u2019s ticket in 2024 \u2014 announced Monday he was dropping out of running for reelection. He pointed to fraud against the state, saying it\u2019s a real issue while alleging Trump and his allies were \u201cseeking to take advantage of the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, the New York Post reported<\/a> that the administration was expanding the funding freeze to include California and three other Democrat-led states, in addition to Minnesota. Unnamed federal officials cited \u201cconcerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens,\u201d The Post reported.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

Early Tuesday, President Trump alleged that corruption in California is worse than Minnesota and announced an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that\u2019s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,\u201d the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.<\/p>\n

He did not specify what alleged fraud was being examined in the Golden State.<\/p>\n

LAist has reached out to the White House to ask what the president\u2019s fraud concerns are in California and to request an interview with the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,\u201d said an emailed statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal childcare funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Trump administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s press office disputed Trump\u2019s claim<\/a> on social media, arguing that since taking office, the governor has blocked $125 billion in fraud and arrested \u201ccriminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criminal fraud cases in CA appear to be rare for this program<\/p>\n

Defrauding federally funded programs is a crime \u2014 and one LAist has investigated, leading to one of the largest such criminal cases in recent years against a California elected official<\/a>, which surrounded meal funds.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the federal childcare funds that are being frozen, the dollar amount of fraud alleged in criminal cases appears to be a tiny fraction of the overall program\u2019s spending in California.<\/p>\n

A search of thousands of news releases by all four federal prosecutor offices in California, going back more than a decade, found a total of one criminal case where the press releases referenced childcare benefits.<\/p>\n

That case<\/a>, brought in 2023, alleged four men stole $3.7 million in federal childcare benefits through fraudulent requests to a San Diego organization that distributed the funds. All four pleaded guilty, with one defendant sentenced to 27 months in prison and others sentenced to other terms, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

It appears to be equivalent to one one-hundredth of 1% of all the childcare funding California has received over the past decade-plus covered by the prosecution press release search.<\/p>\n

Potential impact on California families<\/p>\n

The plans call for California, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Colorado to lose about $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children, almost $2.4 billion to care for children of working parents, and about $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk, according to unnamed federal officials speaking to the New York Times<\/a> and New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the largest category of funding, California receives $3.7 billion per year. The program is known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dIt’s very clear that a freeze of those funds would be very damaging to the children, families, and providers of California,\u201d said Stacy Lee, who oversees early childhood initiatives “at Children Now, an advocacy group for children in California.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dIt is a significant portion of our funds and will impact families and children and providers across the whole state,\u201d she added. \u201cIt would be devastating, in no uncertain terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 270,000 people are served by the TANF program in L.A. County \u2014 about 200,000 of whom are children, according to the county Department of Public Social Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny pause in funding for their cash benefits \u2013 which average $1000\/month – would be devastating to these families,\u201d said DPSS chief of staff Nick Ippolito.<\/p>\n

Ippolito said the department has a robust fraud prevention and 170-person investigations team, and takes allegations \u201cvery seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the funding freeze will end up in court. The state, as well as major cities and counties in California, has sued to ask judges to halt funding freezes or new requirements placed by the Trump administration. L.A. city officials say they\u2019ve had success<\/a> with that, including shielding more than $600 million in federal grant funding to the city last year.<\/p>\n

A union representing California childcare workers said the funding freeze would harm low-income families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese threats need to be called out for what they are: direct threats on working families of all backgrounds who rely on access to quality, affordable child care in their communities to go to work every day supporting, and growing our economy,\u201d said Max Arias, chairperson for the Child Care Providers United, which says it represents more than 70,000 child care workers across the state who care for kids in their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding freezes, even when intended to be temporary, will be devastating \u2014 resulting in families losing access to care and working parents facing the devastating choice of keeping their children safe or paying their bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to reach me<\/p>\n

If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is ngerda.47.<\/p>\n

Federal officials planned to send letters to the affected states Monday about the planned funding pauses, the New York Post reported. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, state officials said they haven\u2019t gotten any official notification of the funding freeze plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe California Department of Social Services administers child care programs that help working families afford safe, reliable care for their children \u2014 so parents can go to work, support their families, and contribute to their communities,\u201d said a statement from California Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese funds are critical for working families across California. We take fraud seriously, and CDSS has received no information from the federal government indicating any freeze, pause, or suspension of federal child care funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration says it\u2019s planning to freeze about $10 billion in federal support for needy families in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,7897,15672,64401,3130,4226,64400,1519],"class_list":["post-122938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-childcare","tag-cuts","tag-federal-assistance","tag-fraud","tag-minnesota","tag-tanf","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}