The Trump administration is pausing over $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota "because of suspected fraud and noncompliance," ‌U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ​said on Tuesday.

"If those states want that money they need to ⁠provide documentations that these payments are legitimate," Kennedy ​said at a news conference alongside CMS Administrator Dr. ⁠Mehmet Oz.

The pause is the latest in a series of payment suspensions mostly at Democratic-run states as Vice ‌President JD Vance, Kennedy, and Oz spearhead ​a campaign the ‌White House has called an "unrelenting" war on fraud.

Kennedy said the ‌administration suspects that much of the questionable spending in California involves in-home services, and 14 high risk ⁠areas that Minnesota's ‌own legislative auditor identified ⁠as vulnerable to fraud.

Oz and Kennedy did not provide ⁠evidence ⁠of the alleged fraud.

Kennedy said he was also expanding exclusion authority ‌both to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the health department's Office of the Inspector General, ‌allowing ​them to remove "bad actors" ‌from federal healthcare programs and potentially ban them permanently from returning.