Overview
- California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York filed suit in federal court in Manhattan, with New York Attorney General Letitia James leading the case.
- HHS restricted access to CCDF, TANF, and SSBG funds totaling more than $10 billion, citing reasons to believe there was fraud and improper payments.
- Letters from HHS demanded extensive records, including names and Social Security numbers of beneficiaries and data on providers, with deadlines as short as 14 days for some states.
- ACF tightened its “Defend the Spend” review and launched a fraud-reporting website, and all other states now face new pre-disbursement verification steps for child-care funds.
- Federal scrutiny intensified following allegations tied to Minneapolis child-care providers, as Minnesota was already told to urgently produce records after its funding was curtailed in late December.