The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is closing a loophole that could allow bad actors to commit fraud with childcare payments, as the Somali daycare fraud scandal continues to disgust the nation.
Fraudsters across the country have been running fake daycares to funnel taxpayer money into their own pockets. The Somali fraud network in Minnesota has drawn particular criticism, with the scandal forcing Gov. Tim Walz (D) to not run for reelection. HHS is now moving to make fraud much more difficult for liars who claim to run daycares and never take care of children.
Under the Biden administration, policies required states to pay out money to childcare providers ahead of time and without verifying attendance. This enabled many people to receive money without any way of proving that they were actually going to provide care at all. Now, the Trump-Kennedy HHS is ensuring that the 2024 Child Care and Development Fund will enforce oversight instead of enable fraud.
“Congress appropriated this funding to support working families and ensure children have safe places to grow and learn,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Loopholes and fraud diverted that money to bad actors instead. Today, we are correcting that failure and returning these funds to the working families they were meant to serve.”
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God knows how much money we wasted on fraud thanks to the Biden administration. Their policies based payments on enrollment, or alleged enrollment, rather than on attendance.
- Attendance-based billing will be restored. States may require payment based on verified attendance rather than enrollment alone.
- Upfront payments will no longer be required. States may again pay providers after care is delivered.
- Voucher flexibility will return. States are no longer steered toward contracts over parent-directed vouchers, restoring parental choice.
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill observed, “Paying providers upfront based on paper enrollment instead of actual attendance invites abuse. In Minnesota, we’ve seen credible and widespread allegations of fraudulent daycare providers who were not caring for children at all. The reforms we are enacting will make fraud harder to perpetrate.”
This issue alone illustrates how much better the Trump administration is at being stewards of our taxpayer dollars than the Biden administration. Republicans want to restrict fraud, Democrats want to increase it. Let us hope that American voters remember that very clearly this midterm year, and going into the next presidential election as well. It is no wonder we are so massively in debt.
Assistant Secretary for Family Support Alex Adams said, “When controls are not in place, bad actors can bill for children who aren’t there. Families and taxpayers deserve proof that services are being delivered to children.”
Unfortunately, the Biden administration made it so easy to commit fraud that we might never know the full extent of it. But the Trump administration is aggressively working to address the crisis and ensure it does not continue.
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