Judge extends block on Trump admin’s bid to slash social services funds to 5 states

A New York judge on Friday extended a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from slashing funds to social service programs in five Democrat-led states.

U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick made his ruling at the request of Minnesota, California, Illinois, New York and Colorado. The states receive a total of over $10 billion a year from the federal government for its programs, which help with child care and family assistance.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) praised the ruling in a statement, saying the “illegal funding freeze would have caused severe chaos in the lives of some of the most vulnerable families in our state.”

“We are pleased that the court has once again sided with us,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) wrote in his own statement. “The Trump Administration’s actions are not only unlawful — they are cruel, targeting the most vulnerable among us. My fellow attorneys general and I will not relent in this case, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in permanently blocking the unlawful funding freeze.”

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) previously said the funding freeze was due to “serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs.”

The Hill reached out to HHS for comment about Broderick’s ruling.

The states said the slash in funding created “operational chaos,” The Associated Press previously reported. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian allowed the states’ request for a temporary restraining order blocking the funding freeze to “protect the status quo” while arguments were made in court.

“Families who rely on child care and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said at the time. “This action reflects our commitment to program integrity, fiscal responsibility, and compliance with federal requirements.”

The funding block on Minnesota came in the wake of a massive welfare fraud scandal. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins ordered Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) in December to recertify the eligibility of almost 100,000 households in four counties within 30 days or potentially lose funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

U.S. District Judge Laura M. Provinzino last month temporarily blocked the administration from withholding funds to the North Star State. She wrote in her decision that the U.S. Department of Agriculture “failed entirely to provide a reasoned explanation for how this pilot project will help it assess fraud in Minnesota” and questioned why there was a compressed timeline.

President Trump has used the fraud investigation to attack the state’s Somali community and justify the surge of federal law enforcement officers as part of his immigration crackdown. The administration’s tactics were met with heavy scrutiny after two Minneapolis residents were shot and killed in separate incidents last month by federal agents.