42 U.S.C. § 304 — Stopping payment on deviation from required provisions of plan or failure to comply therewith

This section has no lettered subsections; it describes one process in numbered steps. It lets the Secretary cut off federal funding to a State whose approved welfare plan breaks certain rules. If a State's plan has been approved under this subchapter, the Secretary can act after giving the State agency that administers or supervises the plan reasonable notice and a chance for a hearing. The Secretary can act if the Secretary finds either: (1) that the plan has been changed to add an age, residence, or citizenship requirement that section 302(b) of this title forbids, or that such a forbidden requirement is being applied in a substantial number of cases with the State agency's knowledge; or (2) that, in administering the plan, there is a substantial failure to follow a provision that section 302(a) of this title requires the plan to include. If the Secretary finds either problem, the Secretary must notify the State agency that no further payments will be made to the State — or, at the Secretary's discretion, that payments will be limited to categories or parts of the plan not affected by the failure. Payments stay cut off, or limited, until the Secretary is satisfied that the forbidden requirement is no longer being imposed, and that the compliance failure no longer exists.