ICYMI: New reporting confirms the Oversight Committee’s investigative findings revealing how Governor Walz failed to address widespread fraud

WASHINGTON—New reporting from the Minnesota Star Tribune reveals how Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and his administration failed to address widespread fraud in the state’s federally-funded social services programs. The reporting, which includes testimony from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s investigation, confirms officials were warned about fraud concerns as early as 2019 yet failed to act to protect taxpayer dollars from fraudsters. 

Below are key excerpts from the article:

“Interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the administration’s response and a review of more than 1,000 pages of testimony from a congressional investigation into the state’s handling of social services fraud provide the clearest picture yet of how Walz and his team failed to connect warning signs across state government.

“Officials overlooked alarming spending growth in some programs, wrestled with whether to stop payments to known fraud defendants, bristled at fellow Democrats who voiced concerns and did not grasp the scandal’s political significance until it became a major threat to Walz’s re-election.

[…]

“When Walz took office in 2019, state officials were already aware of problems in two programs administered by the Department of Human Services (DHS).

“DHS had been trying to stop fraud in a program that helps low-income families pay for child care for years before Walz took office. The state’s nonpartisan legislative auditor had also flagged insufficient oversight of nonemergency medical transportation, a program that pays for people’s rides to medical appointments.

“Walz’s first DHS commissioner, Tony Lourey, told congressional investigators that he informed [Chris] Schmitter [former chief of staff for Governor Walz] of problems in the two programs in 2019.”

Read the House Oversight Committee’s report, “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion.”