
Ever since Nick Shirley’s viral video last month claiming that Minneapolis is rife with scam providers, child care operators and low-income parents have feared that the Trump administration would cut off federal funding to Minnesota day care centers.
Their uncertainty will last at least two more weeks.
On Friday, a federal judge in New York postponed a more lasting decision on whether the Trump administration is within its rights to freeze child care funding to Minnesota and four other states.
Instead, District Judge Vernon Broderick issued a two-week stay, which means that the five states will continue to receive federal child care funds as usual until Feb. 6. At that point, the judge (might) issue a ruling that grants or denies the states’ call for an injunction against the Administration for Children and Families.
The Associated Press first reported on the judge’s order.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who filed the lawsuit alongside state AGs from California, Colorado, Illinois and New York, said that he was “encouraged” by Broderick’s ruling.
“The court clearly recognizes how devastating these funding cuts would be for child care services in Minnesota,” Ellison said in an emailed statement. “I’m sure that Donald Trump is also aware of the damage these cuts would cause, and is pursuing them as part of his ongoing war on Minnesota.”
Messages left with U.S. Health and Human Services, the sprawling federal agency that includes the Administration for Children and Families, were not immediately returned Friday.
Related: Inside the nightmare winter for Minnesota child care providers
Minnesota normally receives $467 million a year in federal money toward child care and job training programs for parents below certain annual income thresholds.
One week after Shirley’s video, Alex Adams, assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families, wrote to the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families that his federal division is temporarily restricting money that goes to child care programs. Adams wrote virtually identical letters to the other four states.
The states sued, saying that the executive branch cannot freeze money already appropriated by Congress.
In court briefings, lawyers for Adams and his colleagues argue that the Trump administration is not freezing funds per se, but rather suspending payments until the states hand over information on child care recipients and providers.
While talk of Minnesota social services fraud spurred the payment suspension, these information requests veer in a different direction. Specifically, Adams requested data on all program recipients from the last several years to determine if any of them are undocumented immigrants.
Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for Health and Human Services, said earlier this month that the information on recipients is necessary because “HHS has a responsibility to ensure that the federal taxpayer dollars are used for the purposes outlined by Congress.”
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