XPost: mn.politics, alt.fraud, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services has warned   
   Minnesota it could have to repay hundreds of millions in federal dollars   
   if the state keeps refusing to hand over child care center records amid   
   a widening fraud scandal.   
      
   In a pair of letters dated Jan. 15, HHS administrators notified   
   Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families commissioner Tikki   
   Brown of her failure to provide the Trump administration “with   
   information and documentation, requested and required under regulation,   
   in a timely manner.”   
      
   Alex Adams, the assistant secretary of HHS’ Administration for Children   
   and Families, which provided $184,928,081 in taxpayer funding to   
   Minnesota youth services in fiscal year 2025, told Brown her department   
   had 60 days to fork over the records.   
      
   “In early December, HHS asked Minnesota for data on their child care   
   program participants, enrollment, attendance records, inspection records   
   — things that would [give] confidence to the American taxpayers that   
   child care dollars are going to actual children,” Adams said in a Friday   
   statement. “Minnesota has still not sent that information. We are no   
   longer asking; we are now demanding.”   
      
   HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill also affirmed that HHS “will pursue   
   full penalties under the law against the state” if officials don’t   
   provide records and other information by March 16.   
      
   Under federal regulations, those penalties would include forcing   
   Minnesota to pay back past money received from HHS, as well as   
   disqualification from receiving future funds, Adams told The Post.   
      
   “An amount equal to or less than the improperly expended funds will be   
   deducted from the administrative portion of the State allotment for the   
   following fiscal year,” the regulations state.   
      
   The HHS Office of Inspector General and the Minnesota Office of the   
   Legislative Auditor have both uncovered evidence that child care centers   
   in receipt of federal block grants failed to maintain daily attendance   
   records and lacked “adequate financial controls.”   
      
   Funding for the youth facilities comes primarily from HHS’ Child Care   
   and Development Fund (CCDF), the third-largest US block grant program.   
      
   Minnesota is one of five Democrat-run states — along with New York,   
   California, Colorado and Illinois — that had more than $10 billion in   
   funding from HHS block grant programs paused and put under review   
   earlier this month.   
      
   On Jan. 9, a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze of CCDF,   
   Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Social Services Block Grant   
   monies.   
      
   Since then, O’Neill and Adams have been on the ground in the Land of   
   10,000 Lakes speaking with whistleblowers and state officials about the   
   fraud allegations.   
      
   More than 500 tipsters have reached out, according to Adams.   
      
   The Minnesota scandal has been fueled by outrage over a Dec. 26 viral   
   video in which almost a dozen child care centers receiving taxpayer   
   funds appeared to be closed or inoperable — as well as remarks from the   
   state’s former top federal prosecutor suggesting that the scheme bilked   
   as much as $9 billion from taxpayers since 2018.   
      
   Much of the frustration has been focused on Somali-run child care   
   centers in the Twin Cities, whose operators were targeted in a 2022   
   federal prosecution for stealing more than $250 million and spending   
   their ill-gotten gains on luxury cars and real estate holdings in Turkey   
   and Kenya.   
      
   The scandal erupted amid Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s run for a third term,   
   which he ended on Jan. 5.   
      
   HHS officials expressed confidence that the process to initiate   
   repayments and other penalties for non-compliance wouldn’t get jammed up   
   in the courts.   
      
   As of Friday, more than a month after the initial warning, Minnesota has   
   yet to provide “any of the attendance records, inspection records or   
   other information,” Adams said.   
      
   “The only responses we’ve gotten in writing,” he added, “are delaying   
   or   
   deferring.”   
      
   In a separate Jan. 15 letter to Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary for   
   Early Childhood Development Laurie Todd-Smith wrote that inspections of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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