#federal-funding-freeze

#federal-funding-freeze

Trump administration officials announced a sprawling probe into benefits fraud across California on Friday, citing what they called a massive, coordinated effort by "foreign actors" to fleece government healthcare to the tune of billions of dollars. The crackdown appeared to center on bogus hospice providers first exposed by The Times in 2020 and later investigated by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. "Eighteen percent of the whole country's home healthcare billing is coming out of Los Angeles County - how is that possible?" said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "It's about $3.5 billion just in L.A. County for hospice and home healthcare."

Trump justified the action in comments posted on his social media platform Truth Social, where he accused Newsom of widespread fraud. The governor's office dismissed the accusation as "deranged." Trump's announcement came amid a broader administration push to target Democratic-led states over alleged fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, following sweeping prosecutions in Minnesota. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the planned funding freeze, which was first reported by The New York Post.

The freeze, first reported by the New York Post, will impact California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, according to news reports confirmed by HHS. HHS will cut more than $7 billion in funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance to households, along with more than $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund.

In the memo, Vought instructed agencies to send "Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees" in programs that are "not consistent with the president's priorities." The OMB director also announced Wednesday that $18 billion in federal funds for New York City's infrastructure projects will be frozen, and $8 billion in "Green New Scam funding" will be frozen in a dozen blue states.

Following more than a year of scrutiny from Republicans over how Northwestern University handled pro-Palestinian campus protests last year as well as a months-long federal funding freeze, President Michael Schill plans to step down. Schill, who has been president since 2022, announced his departure Thursday. "Over the past three years, it has been my profound honor to serve as president of Northwestern University," Schill wrote in a message to the campus community.

When Dominique Thornhill tried to get a loan to launch a child-care center in 2020, every conventional bank she approached glanced at her thick business plan and slim finances, then turned her away. "I thought that's what small-business loans were supposed to support, but I didn't receive that support at all," the former Pittsburgh-public-school teacher told me. "Instead, it was Come back to us when you're already established."