Federal child care payments to Minnesota halted over fraud claims

The move by the Trump administration comes after a viral video purporting to show day care facilities that aren’t operational but receiving government funds.

The Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that it is freezing all federal child care payments to the state of Minnesota in the wake of a viral video that alleged widespread fraud at child care facilities across the state.

In a statement and accompanying video on X, Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and Assistant Secretary Alex Adams said that in addition to halting all payments to Minnesota they were implementing new requirements for child care payments nationwide.

The statement said that all payments handled by the Administration for Children and Families — a component of HHS — will “require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.”

"We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud," the statement said.

In a follow-up post more than an hour after that statement, O'Neill added that funds will be released "only when states prove they are being spent legitimately."