In its latest attack on children, the Trump Administration has announced that it will withhold at least $7.35 billion in funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), $2.4 billion in child care funding, and $870 million in Social Services Block Grant funding from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. The Administration asserts, without evidence, that these states have allowed the funding to be used fraudulently. While fraud must be prevented through strong oversight, this can and must be done without punishing children. Withholding this funding deprives children and their families of critical support and continues this Administration’s relentless attacks on children.
Children are once again collateral damage in a political battle. However, children are neither blue nor red — they are just children with needs no matter where they live. A viral video that contained unsubstantiated claims regarding allegations of fraud at child care centers in Minnesota precipitated this situation. And the Administration responded by withholding funding to these five states, a measure that places the consequences on children and will cause widespread harm.
It is indisputable that program oversight is necessary to prevent fraud. But spreading unsubstantiated claims that target immigrant communities actually undermines the ability to minimize fraud. It takes the focus away from proven fraud, misdirects resources, and reduces cooperation with authorities. This is especially concerning because recent cases of fraud have hurt children deeply, for instance, by causing fewer hungry children to be fed during the pandemic. The Administration’s recent actions compound the harm that this kind of fraud has inflicted, and it must address the issue in a way that minimizes the impact on children.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Since expiration of the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansions, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program stands as one of the only federal programs providing monthly cash assistance to families with low incomes. TANF supports millions of children and families through cash assistance as well as child care subsidies, state tax credits, food banks, and other aid.
Nearly 70% of TANF recipients are children. By withholding TANF funding from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, the Trump Administration is cutting off 55.8% of the total number of children who benefit from TANF nationally from critical support — more than half of all children who receive TANF.
TANF cash assistance is a lifeline for the households with children who receive it, helping parents and caretakers afford food, rent, diapers, and other staples. Yet TANF households are often subject to strict work reporting requirements and assistance fails to reach many kids in need. TANF funding remained flat in FY 2025, as it has every other year since its inception in 1997. Consequently, the TANF block grant has not been increased to adjust for inflation or population change for three decades. Since then, inflation has cost the TANF block grant 49% of its value.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 included several changes to the TANF program. Some of these could expand the number of households subject to work reporting requirements, causing additional families with children to lose assistance. Because TANF has only been reauthorized on a short-term basis for the last 20 years, it is already routinely exposed to Congressional policy changes that could undermine its purpose or erode its value to children.
Congress has allowed TANF funding to wither on the vine over the last 30 years, and as a result it already fails to meet its stated purpose of supporting needy children and families. Withholding funding from a targeted set of states with no evidence to support the claims of fraud further deprives children of the economic leg up their families need to help them reach their full potential and lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
Child Care
The Trump Administration’s unilateral freeze on child care funding for five states does not consider the impact this radical move will have on children and their families. Child care provides families with the opportunity to work or study; supports an early learning workforce; and supplies crucial infrastructure for the United States’ economy. Child care continues to be an enormous expense that many families cannot afford. In 2024, the cost to a family of child care for two children in a center was more than annual mortgage payments in 45 states and the District of Columbia, and the cost of child care for an infant at a center was more than in-state tuition at a public university in 41 states and D.C.
The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which includes the discretionary Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and the mandatory Child Care Entitlement to States, provides vital support to families, enabling them to afford care for their children so that they can go to work or attend school or training. Despite the proven value and the demonstrated need for more child care resources, CCDBG was already flat-funded in FY 2025, which resulted in a cut of 2.25% from FY 2024, when accounting for inflation. Freezing CCDF funding for these five states will delay payments that child care providers rely on to survive, cause confusion and stress for families and providers alike, and potentially result in a loss of care. This freeze would impact 23.7% of children from low-income families who rely on child care subsidies from the federal government in these five states, plus children who don’t receive direct child care support but attend child care centers that receive federal funding, for a total of over 500,000 children. This freeze will cause uncertainty and instability in every state, as child care administrators and providers try to navigate an unpredictable future.
The Administration also is taking other steps that undermine child care. Significant numbers of federal child care staff have lost their jobs this year, and the Administration has announced unspecified new requirements for all states to justify their child care spending. The Department of Health and Human Services also recently released a proposed rule that would roll back important policies that make running a child care business viable and care affordable for families. Under the new rule, child care providers would no longer be paid prospectively and would be paid based on child attendance rather than enrollment, contrary to policies in the private child care market that help providers to stay in business. The new rule also would eliminate the current cap that limits families’ out-of-pocket child care costs to 7% of their income. These efforts cumulatively hurt children, their families, and child care providers and professionals.
The U.S. child care system already is struggling, and putting a blanket freeze on needed assistance for children and their families will cause confusion and uncertainty at best, and at worst, will result in the closure of child care providers, the loss of jobs for both child care professionals and parents, and a reduction in quality care for kids.
Social Services Block Grant (SSBG)
The Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funds essential child welfare programs, including child protective services, foster care, and support for struggling families, as well as child care in some states. Freezing SSBG funds could reduce the number of child protective services workers, which could increase the risk of undetected child abuse; weaken foster care support, forcing states to cut services for children in need; rob families facing crises of needed resources, increasing homelessness and instability; and cut child care slots and assistance to families, further limiting their ability to afford care.
Allegations, Politics Hurt Children
Children must not be punished for unproven allegations of fraud or by partisan politics. The Administration’s funding freeze contains elements of both: Unproven allegations triggered the freeze in Minnesota, which was quickly followed by a freeze in California, Colorado, Illinois and New York — all states run by Democratic governors. Millions of children rely on federal funding for child care, for cash assistance in times of trouble, and on the protection of child welfare professionals to shield them from abuse. Withholding these funds for any reason puts the nation’s most vulnerable children at even greater risk of hunger, homelessness, abuse, loss of care, and other harms. The Administration must immediately release the funding that children depend on to survive.