NEW YORK (WABC) — The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing $10 billion in federal funds in five Democrat-run states over allegations of fraudulent child care programming, an HHS official confirmed to ABC News.
The HHS official confirmed that the five states are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.
They are concerned that the money is going to non-citizens.
“For too long, Democrat-led states and Governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” a health department spokesperson wrote in a statement to ABC News.
The five states will be required to provide attendance records and inspection reports for child care facilities.
Gov. Kathy Hochul responded to the freeze.
“And I have to ask the question, why is there such a frontal assault on children in this nation from this administration, just back in November they just stopped feeding our kids, now they wont vaccinate our kids, they are not allowing their parents to have their health care premiums covered without going up dramatically to make sure that our kids are raised safely and healthy,” Hochul said. “And now they don’t give a damn about child care for kids…we will fight this with every fiber of our being because our kids should not be political pawns in a fight that Donald Trump seems to have with blue state governors.”
On Monday, the administration said it will pause child care funding to the five states until each one shows more proof of how the money is spent.
(ABC News contributed to this report.)
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