California, New York And Other Blue States To Sue Trump Over $10b Cut To Welfare Funding

SACRAMENTO, California — California and four other Democrat-run states are planning to sue the Trump administration over $10 billion in cutsto welfare programs.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told POLITICO he and attorneys general for New York, Colorado, Minnesota, and Illinois will file a lawsuit on Thursday to challenge the funding freeze announced earlier this week by Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services. The cuts are in response to what federal officials have alleged without evidence is widespread fraud and waste of public funds by the states’ welfare agencies.

“They literally just targeted Democratic states because they're Democrat,” Bonta said in an interview. “They have not one shred, not one shred of evidence, and to turn off the funding with no justification. It's unlawful and it's also petty.”

The lawsuit will be the 53rd time California has mounted a legal challenge against Trump since he retook office. Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his annual State of the State address Thursday, mentioned not only the cuts to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, but Bonta’s success in court so far.

“We’ve gone to court to protect our people, pushing back against this executive overreach,” Newsom said. "As a consequence, a point of pride for our attorney general, we have preserved about $168 billion in illegally frozen federal resources.”

On Tuesday,federal officials notified the states of plans to withhold $7 billion in funding from the TANF program, as well as $2.4 billion from the Child Care and Development Fund and $870 million in social services grants for children.

Bonta accused Trump of overstepping his powers by trying to cut off money Congress had already allocated to the states.

In addition to the funding cuts Trump officials also requested data from the five states on how they administer their welfare programs. Bonta seized on the data request, saying it illustrated the administration’s misplaced priorities.

“They decided to take the action first, and then start asking questions after,” Bonta said. “That's not how justice works. That's not how the law works. That's not how the Constitution works, and we're going to have to slap them down again.”