Trump administration funding threats set child care providers and parents on edge

Without federal subsidies, Breyanna Rodriguez's child care bill for her four children would run $4,400 a month, which would eat up most of her husband's paycheck. With child care assistance, Rodriguez, who lives in Cortland, Illinois, is able to work part-time and take community college classes while she prepares for nursing school. Now, citing concerns about fraud, the Trump administration has said it will withhold frozen federal child care funding for Illinois and other states while it conducts an extensive review. If she loses her subsidy, Rodriguez said, "I'll have to drop out of work. I'll have to drop out of school." “I just wish this administration didn't make such a drastic leap,” she said. “If families can't get child care subsidies, that's going to impact so many people in so many horrible ways that I don't think they're grasping.” The Trump administration's crackdown on the $12 billion Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes care for 1.4 million children from low-income households, has rattled child care providers and families that rely on the aid money. Citing unspecified allegations of fraud, Trump administration officials are requiring states to provide extra documentation before receiving the money. It's unclear if or when child care providers and families like Rodriguez's would feel the pinch. The administration announced that state officials will be required to provide additional information to receive the federal child care money. In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would freeze the funding for child care subsidies until state officials provided even more exhaustive documentation. The department said it also would withhold other federal safety net money for those states—California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York—including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which supports low-income parents with children under 18 with direct payments and by providing them with child care. This article was provided by The Associated Press.