Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is escalating his legal and political fight with the Trump administration, accusing federal officials of unlawfully threatening funding for essential childcare and food assistance programs that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans rely on.
In a statement released from St. Paul, Ellison said the Trump administration is attempting to cut childcare funding to Minnesota based on what he described as flimsy and unjustified grounds. He said the move could devastate families who depend on affordable childcare to work and support themselves.
“The Trump administration is threatening funding for the essential childcare services that countless families across Minnesota rely on,” Ellison said, calling the action “outrageous” and potentially illegal.
Ellison emphasized that his office has a long record of pursuing fraud aggressively, noting that since taking office he has prosecuted more than 300 Medicaid fraud cases and secured over $80 million in judgments and restitution. He said combating fraud does not justify cutting off services that families depend on to survive.
The childcare funding dispute comes amid an ongoing legal battle over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In late December, Ellison filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), followed by an emergency motion for injunctive relief, after the agency demanded Minnesota re-verify SNAP eligibility for nearly 100,000 households through in-person interviews within 30 days.
Federal officials warned Minnesota it could lose SNAP administrative funding—or be disqualified from the program entirely—if it failed to comply. Roughly 440,000 Minnesotans receive SNAP benefits each month, including about 150,000 children, 70,000 seniors, and 50,000 adults with disabilities.
Ellison called the USDA demand “impossible” and unlawful, arguing it violates the Food and Nutrition Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. Federal law, he said, explicitly prohibits requiring SNAP households to report en masse for in-office interviews.
According to state and county officials, meeting the USDA’s requirement would require massive overtime and staffing increases. Hennepin County alone estimates it would need 60,000 hours of overtime work at a cost of $4 million. Smaller counties, including Wright County, said compliance would require staff to work extreme hours, including holidays and weekends, while abandoning other legally required services.
Ellison argues the demand is especially unjustified given Minnesota’s performance. USDA data shows the state’s SNAP payment error rate in 2024 was lower than the national average and better than those of 33 other states and territories. A 2025 Congressional Research Service report also found that SNAP fraud is rare.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Ellison said, pointing to past Trump administration efforts to threaten food assistance during a government shutdown—actions he previously challenged and won in court. He accused the administration of using SNAP and childcare funding as political weapons against Minnesota.
Minnesota is seeking a temporary restraining order or expedited injunction to block the USDA from enforcing its demand while the lawsuit proceeds. Ellison said his office is also exploring all legal options to prevent abrupt cuts to childcare funding.
“This hasty, scorched-earth attack is not just wrong,” Ellison said. “It may well be illegal.”
