WATCH: Pritzker says receipts shown ‘all the time’ as audits show weaknesses

(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker insists there’s not been any alleged fraud in Illinois that should cause the Trump administration to withhold funds for welfare programs.

Wednesday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Jim O’Neill said the nearly $1 billion being frozen for Illinois is part of $10 billion from states he said are potential fraud hotspots that deserve more scrutiny.

“We put the ‘defend the spend’ on that beginning of last week, insisting that states provide receipts when they ask for money,” O’Neill told The Center Square.

At an unrelated event in Joliet Thursday, Pritzker was asked, why not show the receipts?

“That we do all the time,” Pritzker said when asked by The Center Square. “It’s all available for anybody to look at and, yeah, I mean that’s not a problem for us. We don’t have to deliver anything. We’ve not, there have not been any allegations of it.”

Pritzker said state government gets audited all th...