In another momentous announcement out of the Trump Administration as it deals with the massive and ever-growing Somali migrant-connected fraud scandal in Minnesota, the Trump Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced that it was shutting off the spigot of federal money to Minnesota in response to the fraud scandal.
As background, it has recently been revealed that, in addition to scandalous fraud schemes like the “Feeding Our Future” debacle in which Somali fraudsters ripped of federal taxpayers, or similar schemes like one targeting a state program meant to help the parents of autistic children, it has come out that taxpayer-funded daycares across Minnesota were used by Somalis to fleece taxpayers.
In the wake of those revelations, the Trump Administration has started cracking down all the harder on Tim Walz’s fraud-filled state, to the point of even starting to cut off federal funding for state programs connected to the fraud schemes. Such is what HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced in a post on X, saying, “We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota.”
Continuing, Deputy Secretary O’Neill explained that HHS has gotten involved because of the scope of the daycare fraud scheme, with fraudsters apparently stealing both federal and local taxpayer dollars. He said, “You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade.”
Building on that, he described HHS’s larger response to the inconceivably large fraud scandal that is currently being framed as a Minnesota issue but is really a national one as being tripartite, saying, “Today we have taken three actions against the blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”
He then got to the three big steps being taken to crack down on the fraud. Beginning, he said that step one is implementing new safeguards on the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) grants, which should make the program harder to steal from. “1. I have activated our defend the spend system for all ACF payments. Starting today, all ACF payments across America will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state”, he said.
Getting to the second step, he said that HHS has already identified the centers of fraud involved in the viral video that emerged showing the daycare fraud in Minnesota, saying, “2. Alex Adams and I have identified the individuals in @nickshirleyy ‘s excellent work. I have demanded from @GovTimWalz a comprehensive audit of these centers. This includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations, and inspections.”
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Identifying the third step, he noted that HHS has created a new way to report fraud, saying, “3. We have launched a dedicated fraud-reporting hotline and email address at https://childcare.gov Whether you are a parent, provider, or member of the general public, we want to hear from you.”
Concluding, he reminded readers that those steps have come alongside HHS also cutting off the flow of taxpayer dollars into Minnesota, saying, “We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud.” Watch him here: