A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration cannot block federal money for child care subsidies and other programs aimed at supporting low-income families with children from flowing to five Democratic-led states for now.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, did not rule on the legality of the funding freeze but said the five states met a legal threshold “to protect the status quo” for at least 14 days while arguments are made in court.
Health department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The five states say they receive a total of more than $10 billion a year from the programs.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.”
The government had requested reams of data from the five states, including the names and Social Security numbers of everyone who received benefits from some of the programs since 2022.
The states argue that the effort is unconstitutional and is intended to go after Trump’s political adversaries rather than to stamp out fraud in government programs — something the states say they already do.
Jessica Ranucci, a lawyer in James’ office, said during the Friday hearing that at least four of the states had already had money delayed after requesting it. She said that if the states can’t get child care funds, there will be immediate uncertainty for providers and families who rely on the programs.
A lawyer for the federal government, Kamika Shaw, said it was her understanding that the money had not stopped flowing to states.
The other 45 states face a new requirement to check attendance at child care centers and submit “strong justification for the use of funds” that aligns with the program’s purpose.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office did not immediately have a comment Friday evening. The state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, said he’d fight the new freeze of funds in court.
In a letter to Walz that Rollins shared on social media, she suggested the state could restore its access to the funding by providing justification for how it spent federal dollars over the past year. All the state’s future transactions involving money from the agency will require the same justification, she said.
