IDAHO – Two Republican state lawmakers have asked the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to not spend federal funds to expand child care availability until the state boosts fraud oversight measures.
The move comes as the Trump administration has heightened federal oversight of child care subsidy distribution after a conservative social media influencer alleged fraud in Minnesota’s child care programs.
In a letter last week, two Idaho Republican lawmakers — Rep. Josh Tanner, an Eagle Republican who on Monday became co-chairman of the Legislature’s powerful budget committee, and Sen. Brian Lenney, a Nampa Republican — asked the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to freeze payments for Idaho’s program, which they called similar to Minnesota’s.
Idaho’s funds haven’t yet been doled out, but the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is shoring up oversight efforts now, agency spokesperson AJ McWhorter said in a statement Friday.
“Recent federal enforcement actions in Minnesota, now under investigation as one of the largest welfare-fraud schemes in U.S. history, have revealed systemic vulnerabilities in childcare subsidy programs similar in structure to Idaho’s,” Tanner and Lenney wrote. “Those investigations identified inadequate enrollment verification, limited financial oversight, and insufficient inspection controls.”
Idaho state Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, talks with colleagues during the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee meeting on Jan. 7, 2025, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
In their Dec. 31 letter, Lenney and Tanner asked Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Juliet Charron to temporarily suspend “proposal solicitations, contract issuances, and fund disbursements” linked to $14 million in funding the Legislature approved in 2025 to expand child care availability, “pending implementation of enhanced program-integrity and fraud-prevention safeguards.”
Lenney and Tanner could not be reached for comment.
Idaho’s funds haven’t been given out, Department of Health and Welfare says
The lawmakers called on freezing the state’s spending for $14 million in federal funds for the Idaho Child Care Program. Last year through Senate Bill 1206, the Legislature allowed the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to spend that money to boost child care availability through contracts, grants and programs.
The Department of Health and Welfare “is committed to administering all programs with robust oversight and will continue efforts to address suspected fraudulent behavior by bad actors,” McWhorter said last week. “While the department has established processes for fraud and abuse identification and mitigation, the department has been working closely with the Governor’s Office since Monday to take additional steps to conduct heightened reviews of subsidies that were previously disbursed.”
“The department is actively redirecting staff to scale up resources to continue to support these reviews and necessary actions, including provider termination when appropriate,” he said. “Any bad actors will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
In an X post last week, Lenney called their letter “just the opening shot.”
“Minnesota got torched for BILLIONS in childcare fraud. We’re not waiting around to be next,” he wrote.
Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, asks a question during the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on March 10, 2025, at the Idaho Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
It isn’t immediately clear whether fraud has been alleged in Idaho’s program. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare could not be immediately reached about whether it received specific fraud allegations in its program.
Idaho’s request came after Minnesota fraud allegations that prompted federal crackdown
On Dec. 18, a federal prosecutor said fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid services could be more than $9 billion, the Minnesota Reformer reported.
Then last week, the Trump administration cracked down on child care funding in response to a viral YouTube video by right-wing social media influencer Nick Shirley that alleged Somali-run child care centers receive state and federal funding but had no children attending those centers, the Minnesota Reformer reported.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it froze all child care payments to Minnesota and is requiring states to provide “justification” that federal child care funds they receive are spent on “legitimate” providers in order to get those dollars, States Newsroom reported.
In August 2024, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare paused new enrollments for parents to receive subsidies through the program for months as the agency anticipated the program would face a budget shortfall. At the time, state officials said the projected shortfall was caused by rising costs of child care and expanded program eligibility, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
