Trump administration tightens US childcare reporting requirements, no funds frozen in Minnesota
Source: Reuters
December 31, 2025 5:45 PM EST Updated 2 hours ago
Dec 31 (Reuters) - A day after the U.S. deputy secretary of Health and Human Services announced on social media that federal childcare funds for Minnesota were being frozen, a spokesperson for the department said that instead, reporting requirements had been tightened across the country. Officials in President Donald Trump's administration had singled out Minnesota in social media statements on Tuesday, ramping up what Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, characterized as a political confrontation over immigration and allegations of widespread fraud in social services programs.
"We have frozen all childcare payments to the state of Minnesota," Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill said on X on Tuesday. He named three steps he said the department was taking: requiring more documentation for ACF (Administration for Children & Families) payments across the country; demanding an audit of childcare centers that were the focus of fraud accusations in a video circulating on the internet; and establishing a hotline and email address that members of the public can use to report fraud.
The spokesperson said those three steps were the extent of the department's actions and that no payments to Minnesota had been frozen. The spokesperson said childcare centers suspected of fraud would have to provide documentation of attendance records, complaints from parents and other matters to receive funding. Centers not suspected of fraud would have to provide data to the federal government that they likely already had been giving to the state, so were unlikely to face funding delays.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison nonetheless expressed concern on Wednesday. "The Trump administration is threatening funding for the essential childcare services that countless families across Minnesota rely on — apparently all on the basis of one video on social media," Ellison said. "To say I am outraged is an understatement." "My team and I are exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical childcare services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding," the attorney general added.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trump-administration-freezes-child-day-care-payments-minnesota-2025-12-31/
REFERENCES
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