Trump administration tightens US child in Minnesota

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.



According to Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill said 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 three steps were the extent of the department's actions and that no payments to Minnesota had been frozen.



It also added 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.