{"id":1405320,"date":"2026-02-06T19:13:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/?p=1405320&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=1405320"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:50:26","slug":"us-social-service-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/06\/us-social-service-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds can\u2019t withhold social service funds from 5 Democratic states amid fraud claims, judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By GEOFF MULVIHILL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump\u2019s administration must keep funds flowing to child care subsidies and other social service programs in five Democratic-controlled states \u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related left\"><h2 class=\"widget-title\" data-curated-ids=\"\" data-relation-type=\"automatic-primary-section\">Related Articles<\/h2><ul><li>\n\t\t\t<a class=\"article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/08\/housing-costs-are-crippling-many-americans-heres-how-the-two-parties-propose-to-fix-that\/\" title=\"Housing costs are crippling many Americans. Here\u2019s how the two parties propose to fix that\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"dfm-title metered\">\n\t\t\tHousing costs are crippling many Americans. Here\u2019s how the two parties propose to fix that\t\t<\/span>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\n<\/li><li>\n\t\t\t<a class=\"article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/07\/vaccine-court-overhaul\/\" title=\"Her son\u2019s injury never got its day in vaccine court. Their lawyer is now advising RFK Jr. on its overhaul\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"dfm-title metered\">\n\t\t\tHer son\u2019s injury never got its day in vaccine court. Their lawyer is now advising RFK Jr. on its overhaul\t\t<\/span>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\n<\/li><li>\n\t\t\t<a class=\"article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/06\/border-family-separation\/\" title=\"Judge orders Trump administration to bring back 3 families deported to Honduras, other countries\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"dfm-title metered\">\n\t\t\tJudge orders Trump administration to bring back 3 families deported to Honduras, other countries\t\t<\/span>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\n<\/li><li>\n\t\t\t<a class=\"article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/06\/epstein-house-unredacted-files\/\" title=\"Justice Department will allow lawmakers to see unredacted versions of released Epstein files\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"dfm-title metered\">\n\t\t\tJustice Department will allow lawmakers to see unredacted versions of released Epstein files\t\t<\/span>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\n<\/li><li>\n\t\t\t<a class=\"article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/06\/old-arizona-abortion-restrictions\/\" title=\"Judge strikes down old Arizona abortion restrictions that clash with voter-backed guarantees\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"dfm-title metered\">\n\t\t\tJudge strikes down old Arizona abortion restrictions that clash with voter-backed guarantees\t\t<\/span>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\n<\/li><\/ul><\/aside>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick in New York, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, granted the states\u2019 request for a preliminary injunction and a stay against the administration to bar it from withholding the money while a lawsuit works its way through the courts.<\/p>\n<p>The states affected include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. The five states said they receive a total of more than $10 billion a year from the programs.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys representing the federal government in the case did not immediately return emails seeking comment Friday night. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Two temporary rulings had been issued in January that <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/social-service-child-care-5-states-trump-c4af28914687e6b95a3122a225676a8c\">blocked the federal government<\/a> from holding back the funding, with the latest set to expire on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The programs in question are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes child care for 1.3 million children from low-income families nationally; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery day, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers rely on these funds to pay for necessities and provide their children a safe place to learn,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cThis illegal funding freeze would have caused severe chaos in the lives of some of the most vulnerable families in our state. I am proud to have secured another victory in this case to put a stop to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The government\u2019s explanation of its actions has shifted.<\/p>\n<p>When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it was withholding the money, it said there was \u201creason to believe\u201d the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally. It did not initially explain where the information came from. But in a court hearing, a federal government lawyer said it was largely in reaction to news reports about possible fraud.<\/p>\n<p>And while the government\u2019s initial news release said it \u201cfroze\u201d access to money, federal lawyers told the judge that wasn\u2019t what was happening. Rather, they said, the Trump administration was requiring more information from those states.<\/p>\n<p>The government says it wants more records from the group of states, including names and Social Security numbers for beneficiaries of some of the programs.<\/p>\n<p>Advocates warn that cutting off the child care subsidies could have deep impacts. Day cares that accept the subsidies could face the risk of layoffs or closures. And that would affect both the lower-income families who receive the subsidies and families who don\u2019t. And for many families, losing child care can make it hard or impossible to work.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has targeted multiple programs in Minnesota due to previous fraud cases and new allegations, mostly involving members of the state\u2019s Somali community.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the heightened requirements for the four other Democratic-led states, the administration also has required all states to submit more information about how they\u2019re using money in the child care program before they can draw down the funds.<\/p>\n<p><em>Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The affected states include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":1398738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7867,22,27],"tags":[7601],"feature":[],"location":[],"type-of-work":[7197],"coauthors":[799],"class_list":["post-1405320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-politics","category-news","category-politics","tag-network","type-of-work-news"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"7867","primary_tag":0,"print_workflow_body":"","print_workflow_exported_ts":"","print_workflow_exported_username":"","print_workflow_shapes":"","print_workflow_side":"","really_short_title":"","short_title":"","syndication_source":{"canonical":"https:\/\/www.twincities.com\/2026\/02\/06\/us-social-service-funds","id":"cG9zdDoyNDUwNDM4","siteName":"Sharing Dash","syndicationSourceStack":[{"canonical":"https:\/\/www.twincities.com\/2026\/02\/06\/us-social-service-funds","id":"cG9zdDoyNDUwNDM4","siteName":"Sharing Dash","sourceUrl":"https:\/\/sharingdash.medianewsgroup.com"}],"source_url":"https:\/\/sharingdash.medianewsgroup.com"},"market_neutral_title":"","social_title":"","dfm_hub_post_id":0,"paywall_level":"","featured_media_content":{"content_type":"image","content":{"id":1398738,"title":"Social_Service_Funds_48700","filename":"Social_Service_Funds_48700.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Social_Service_Funds_48700.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/01\/23\/states-social-service-funds-hearing\/attachment\/1398738\/","alt":"","author":"14","description":"","caption":"FILE &#8211; Children watch television at ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 31, 2025. 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