Attorney General Bonta Defeats Trump Administration in Court Again, Continues Protecting Over $10 Billion in Child Care and Family Assistance Funding

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today secured a court order that continues blocking the Trump Administration's illegal attempt to freeze over $10 billion in federal funding for childcare and family assistance programs. Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a funding freeze exclusively on five Democratic-led states - California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota - on the sole basis of unsupported claims of "serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars." To protect the Congressionally-authorized funds that support critical services, the attorneys general of the five states sued HHS on January 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging the funding freeze as well as HHS's extraordinarily broad requests for data and documents related to the states' use of the funding. Less than 24 hours later, Attorney General Bonta and his colleagues secured a temporary restraining order, which blocked the funding freeze and requests for data and documents for 14 days. On January 16, the attorneys general filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to ensure the court's protections remain in effect while the litigation proceeds. On January 23, Judge Vernon Broderick extended the temporary restraining order for an additional 14 days. Today, he granted the states' motion for a preliminary injunction, continuing to preserve over $10 billion in funding "until a decision on the merits in this case[.]"

"We are pleased that the court has once again sided with us. The Trump Administration's actions are not only unlawful - they are cruel, targeting the most vulnerable among us," said Attorney General Bonta. "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 funding at issue benefits millions of Californians - including children, families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities - through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund, and the Social Services Block Grant. Of the $10 billion, approximately $5 billion was frozen in California alone by the Trump Administration.