Five Democratic attorneys general sue HHS for freezing child care, family assistance funding

Five Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services for freezing $10 billion in child care, family assistance, and social service funding.The states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York sued HHS on Thursday, after the department froze the funding to those states on Tuesday, The Hill news outlet reported.
HHS said Tuesday that the freeze was due to “serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs.”
The department said it froze nearly $2.4 billion from the Child Care and Development Fund; $7.35 billion from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; and $869 million from the Social Services Block Grant. The freeze comes after a massive welfare fraud scandal involving federal funds was discovered in Minnesota.
The lawsuit was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“After jeopardizing food assistance and health care, this administration is now threatening to cut off childcare and other critical programs that parents depend on to provide for their children. As New Yorkers struggle with the rising cost of living, I will not allow this administration to play political games with the resources families need to help make ends meet,” James said in a statement.

Read Full Article: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/five-democratic-attorneys-general-sue-hhs-freezing-child-care-family?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators