A federal judge has paused the Trump administration’s attempts to cut over $10 billion in funding for social services and child care in five Democratic-led states, citing concerns about potential fraud.
New York District Judge Arun Subramanian, appointed by President Joe Biden, issued a 14-day temporary restraining order after the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York filed a lawsuit against the funding freeze.
In his two-page order, Subramanian stated, “This relief is preliminary in nature and is intended to protect the status quo pending the briefing and determination of Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.” He acknowledged that these states showed “good cause” in their argument that halting the funds would have “immediate and devastating effects.”
This situation arose earlier in the week when the Trump administration informed these states of a funding freeze due to alleged fraud issues.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wanted to prevent these states from accessing more than $7 billion designated for the Temporary Assistance Program for Needy Families—money aimed at helping low-income families with children—as well as $2.4 billion from the Child Care Development Fund for subsidizing eligible parental child care, and around $870 million from the Social Services block grant program.
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill stated that they requested states to provide receipts before issuing payments for child care fees to taxpayers. “Five blue states filed a lawsuit, and an activist Biden-appointed judge just ordered us to stop asking questions. What are they afraid of?” O’Neill remarked after the ruling.
While HHS plans to comply with the judge’s order, O’Neill expressed a determination to “fight” the ruling. He noted, “We will defer to the courts, but we will fight. We will appeal. We will continue to interrogate,” implying a commitment to halt any wrongdoing.
The funding suspension was communicated to these states through a letter from the HHS Office of Children and Families (ACF), which expressed concerns that benefits might be improperly provided to “illegal aliens.”
ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams highlighted that these concerns were amplified by recent federal indictments and claims alleging that a notable amount of federal funds had been misallocated, detracting from the American families the funds were meant to support.
Governors Tim Walz (Minnesota), Gavin Newsom (California), JB Pritzker (Illinois), Jared Polis (Colorado), and Kathy Hochul (New York) were also asked to provide a detailed list of funding recipients from 2019 to 2025.
In response, the Democratic-led states filed a federal lawsuit arguing that this suspension is an unconstitutional act of political retaliation. The lawsuit claims, “Defendants have publicly promoted fraudulent allegations, whether substantiated or unsubstantiated, that plaintiff states are providing illegal benefits to illegal immigrants,” asserting that the Trump administration is using these unverified claims to retaliate against political adversaries.
