By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Nearly a billion federal taxpayer dollars for child care and family assistance programs are being withheld from the state of Illinois.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would freeze $10 billion from five states. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday said their goal is clear.

“The Department of Health and Human Services has also begun requiring a justification and photo evidence for all child care-related payments nationwide,” Leavitt said.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said all told, approximately $1 billion could be impacted for the Land of Lincoln. Pritzker said the freeze is “wrong, it is cruel,” and the state will take every step possible to defend those impacted.

HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said that should be easy.

“We’re not trying to slow things down, we’re not slowing things down, we’re just saying ‘when states send us a funding request for a legitimate program,’ we’re going to start saying ‘just show us some receipts,’” O’Neill told The Center Square.

State agencies were notified late Tuesday of the freeze for programs through the Child Care and Development Block Grand, Social Services Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

A government spending watchdog is wondering what took the federal government so long to go after possible misuse of federal taxpayer funds.

Truth in Accounting’s Sheila Weinberg said single audits she’s reviewed of Illinois programs raises questions.

“The state agencies were passing money, but they were not ensuring whether that money was being used for authorized purposes,” Weinberg told The Center Square.

Illinois’ handling of the Child Care and Development funds did have material compliance weaknesses, something Weinberg said means there isn’t enough evidence to determine whether funds were properly spent.

Weinberg said it’s curious the federal government hasn’t already moved to freeze funds to root out potential fraud.

“Why did the federal government keep on giving these states money if they weren’t monitoring the money properly?” she said.

O’Neill said the Biden administration limited the ability for states to ask for receipts, a policy the Trump administration is reversing.

“We just started that process to get rid of those pro fraud regulations,” O’Neill said. “So, you can expect that later this year, we’ll finish that process and we’ll actually empower states to fight fraud, you know, better than the Biden people did.”