On January 6, 2026, the Trump administration froze billions of dollars in federal funding for child care and social services in five states led by Democratic governors, including Minnesota. While the freeze was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on January 9, the outcome of the lawsuit is still uncertain and the freeze could be reinstated.
When the funding freezes were initiated, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put on hold three areas of federal funding – the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Social Services Block Grant – citing unsubstantiated concerns. If the states’ lawsuit is ultimately unsuccessful and the funding freeze continues, it would harm all families who receive these supports paying for child care, food, and other basic needs in Minnesota, and the Minnesotans who count on other kinds of services to stay safe or keep their families together.
The services that would primarily be harmed by this federal action – the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), and the range of services funded in part by the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) – together serve hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans. If this federal funding freeze is reinstated, families, small businesses, and nonprofits that rely on federal funds will be out in the cold, unable to afford their basic needs or stay in business providing essential services in our communities.
Below is information on the importance of these services for Minnesotans’ well-being:
- Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP): Every month, through Child Care Assistance, 12,000 Minnesota families, including 23,000 children, are able to afford quality child care that meets their needs. In federal fiscal year 2024, Minnesota received more than $172 million in federal Child Care Development Funds. CCDF is an important funding source, along with other federal, state, and county resources, for Child Care Assistance. Minnesota families rely on these resources so parents can go to work or school while their children have safe places to learn and grow. This is also a crucial funding source for child care providers who struggle to keep their doors open in a challenging industry.
- Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP, Minnesota’s TANF Program): In Minnesota, extremely low-income families with children participating in MFIP are eligible for cash assistance to help meet their basic needs, like food and transportation, which amounts to less than $1,700 a month for a family of four. MFIP benefits, as well as child care assistance and employment and training services, are funded in part by the federal government through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Adults generally must meet strict work-related reporting requirements to qualify for TANF. From federal fiscal year 1998 to 2023, Minnesota received approximately $268 million per year in TANF funds. In state fiscal year 2023, an average of approximately 67,000 people benefited from MFIP cash assistance each month.
- Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) services: SSBG funding helps states and counties to meet the economic security, safety, and care needs of their residents through services such as foster care, education and training, adoption, counseling, day care, and more. In state fiscal year 2023, the federal government allocated $27 million in SSBG funds to Minnesota, making a relatively small but important funding contribution toward serving more than 362,000 Minnesotans, primarily children but also seniors and other adults.
At a time when so many are struggling to make ends meet, freezing federal funding for essential public services in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, on the basis of racialized narratives and false and misleading influencer allegations, is entirely against the interest of everyday people and families.
In a lawsuit filed on January 8 that has so far resulted in the decision to temporarily block the freeze, the impacted states outlined a series of concerns, including the widespread harm to families that would occur and the administration’s extensive demands for data in exchange for lifting the freeze. The states argue that the federal government does not have authority to take this extraordinary action, which they believe singles them out in order to punish those states’ leaders. The lawsuit describes the administration’s expansive request for information as “an impossible task on an impossible timeline,” and critiques the use of “speculative allegations” as a rationale for the freeze and demands for information.
In a communication to stakeholders on January 8 in response to the freeze, the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families noted that Child Care Assistance and MFIP services are not funded solely by the impacted federal funding streams and they were continuing to operate and meet Minnesotans’ needs for the time being.
However, a continued freeze would result in severe hardship across the state and increased financial pressure that could result in child care providers closing their doors. Our economy would suffer from the impact of families spending less on basic needs in their communities, and the parents in those families struggling to stay on the job without affordable child care. If the federal freeze continues, it’s only a matter of time until children, families, service providers, and Minnesota as a whole feels the pain of these Trump administration funding freezes.