Dozens of Democratic lawmakers from blue states targeted by the Trump administration’s latest funding freeze are calling on the administration to restore more than $10 billion cut from social welfare programs.
More than 70 lawmakers signed a letter, first obtained by NOTUS, to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asking for the funds to be released. Funding has been cut for five states: California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York and Illinois.
In making the cuts, the Trump administration argued that the social service spending is riddled with fraud. The Democratic lawmakers pushed back on that assessment.
“HHS has justified this freeze by citing alleged administrative failures and fraud, yet has provided no public evidence demonstrating misconduct of any kind that would warrant such an extraordinary and disruptive action,” the lawmakers said in the letter, led by Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
“We urge HHS to immediately reinstate funding flows while providing transparent, evidence-based justification for any claims of misuse,” the lawmakers demanded in the letter. “American children and families are not bargaining chips. Their health, safety, and stability must not be compromised by administrative actions.”
While the administration has pointed to no instances of fraud in most of the states subject to the funding freeze, the White House has latched onto an investigation of fraudulent use of COVID-era spending in Minnesota.
The recent cuts by the administration to the five states targeted three programs: The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Child Care and Development Fund and the Social Services Block Grant program.
“The department did not accompany the announcement with detailed evidence of systemic fraud,” Morelle told NOTUS in a statement. “The freeze jeopardizes services for low-income families, working parents, and child-care providers who rely on these programs to stay afloat.”
In the letter, the lawmakers noted HHS’ move was unwarranted and “disruptive,” and that to pause funding to Democratic states, the agency needed to explain why oversight mechanisms in place to prevent this had failed.
“If specific instances of misuse or fraud have been identified, they should be addressed through targeted investigations and corrective action, not through a sweeping and indiscriminate funding freeze,” lawmakers said.
The lawmakers also accused the administration of having political motives behind cutting off the funding.
“Congress appropriated these funds to support children and families, not to be withheld as political retribution,” the letter states. “This decision undermines federal-state partnerships, destabilizes child care systems, and erodes confidence in HHS’s stewardship of programs fundamental to the economic stability and well-being of children and families.”
The letter was addressed to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Alex J. Adams, the HHS official who oversees the Administration for Children and Families, which is in charge of managing federal funding for childcare services to the states.
On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that attorneys general in the five targeted states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration following the funding freeze announcement.
California and the other four states called the move an unconstitutional abuse of power. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asks the courts to order the administration to halt the freeze and release the funds, the AP reported.
HHS officials did not immediately respond to the Associated Press for a request for comment on the lawsuit.
About half of the $10 billion in funding targeted by the Trump administration supported California programs, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the Associated Press said.
In letters to the states, Alex J. Adams, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, wrote that HHS had “reason to believe” the states were providing benefits to people who were in the U.S. illegally, offering no further details about the allegations, the AP reported. They requested reams of data, including the names and Social Security numbers of everyone that had received some of the benefits.
“The letters requested that California turn over essentially every document ever associated with the state’s implementation of these federal programs and do so within 14 days, by Jan. 20, including personally identifiable information about program participants,” Bonta said in AP reports. “That is deeply concerning and also deeply frustrating.”
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
