A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from freezing $10 billion in federal funding for child care assistance, low income and social service funds in Illinois and four other Democrat-led states.In a brief order issued Friday, Judge Arun Subramanian of New York directed the Trump administration to release funding for the three social services programs for the next two weeks while the lawsuit plays out. The lawsuit was filed late Thursday by Illinois and the four other states.The Trump administration announced earlier this week that Illinois, Minnesota, New York, California and Colorado would be cut off from $7 billion in funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance for households with children, nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund, which helps support working parents with child care and around $870 million for social services grants that help children at risk.It came a week after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was freezing child care funds in Minnesota and asking for an audit of day care centers amid allegations of fraud by day care centers run by Somali residents.“I’m pleased with the court’s decision, which protects critical funding to support families and help working parents access child care,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement. “There is no justification for this attempted funding freeze. It is a cruel and illegal attempt by the Trump administration to play politics with the lives of children and low-income…
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