The biggest chunk that’s being paused is $7 billion in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grants for California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. Known as TANF, the program provides cash assistance and other support to low-income households.
It’s not clear why TANF is getting caught up in the administration’s probe into potential fraud in federal child care funding in Minnesota. The US Department of Health and Human Services declined to respond to CNN’s query on the issue but said in a statement that Democratic-led states have been “complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch.”
Created by the 1996 federal welfare reform law, TANF is dwarfed by better-known safety net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid, which help tens of millions of low-income Americans.
By contrast, just under 1 million families — with a total of 2.7 million people, most of them children — received cash assistance from TANF in fiscal year 2024, and there’s no tally of how many receive TANF-funded services, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a TANF policy expert and social services consultant. Beneficiaries receiving cash assistance have extremely low incomes with little other sources of support.
“It’s a relatively small number of families, but it’s ones who would likely be destitute without it,” she said, noting the freeze could result in families being evicted and unable to pay for basic necessities, including food.
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Hide you wife, hide you kids, nothing is safe under this man
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Let the Hunger Games begin. 🤮
As part of its claims of widespread fraud in the federal safety net, the Trump administration is [halting $10 billion in funding](https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/07/politics/tanf-explainer-funding-freeze?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit) for several programs in five Democrat-led states.
The biggest chunk that’s being paused is $7 billion in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grants for California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. Known as TANF, the program provides cash assistance and other support to low-income households.
It’s not clear why TANF is getting caught up in the administration’s probe into potential fraud in federal child care funding in Minnesota. The US Department of Health and Human Services declined to respond to CNN’s query on the issue but said in a statement that Democratic-led states have been “complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch.”
Created by the 1996 federal welfare reform law, TANF is dwarfed by better-known safety net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid, which help tens of millions of low-income Americans.
By contrast, just under 1 million families — with a total of 2.7 million people, most of them children — received cash assistance from TANF in fiscal year 2024, and there’s no tally of how many receive TANF-funded services, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a TANF policy expert and social services consultant. Beneficiaries receiving cash assistance have extremely low incomes with little other sources of support.
“It’s a relatively small number of families, but it’s ones who would likely be destitute without it,” she said, noting the freeze could result in families being evicted and unable to pay for basic necessities, including food.
Hide you wife, hide you kids, nothing is safe under this man