House report says MN officials ignored fraud warnings as early as 2019; Walz's office calls oversight committee "a joke"

A congressional report released Monday accuses senior Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, of ignoring clear warnings of widespread fraud in federally funded social programs as early as 2019, and retaliating against state employees who tried to raise concerns.

The 205-page report was released by the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Committee investigators allege state officials had the authority to stop payments and ban fraudulent providers but repeatedly failed to act. The report estimates roughly $300 million in meal program fraud and also flags potentially $9 billion more in questionable Medicaid payments.

The report also alleges that state employees who raised concerns about fraud faced retaliation and intimidation.

"Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison are responsible for one of the most stunning oversight failures this Committee has ever examined," committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, said. "Billions of dollars were stolen because Minnesota state leaders turned a blind eye to rampant fraud and retaliated against state employees who dared to raise concerns."

Comer also sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance, urging the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud to conduct a thorough review of Minnesota's social services programs dating back to 2019.

Both Walz and Ellison have appeared before the House Oversight Committee in the wake of the Feeding Our Future fraud case. In March, Comer questioned both officials on why payments from programs impacted by fraud were not stopped sooner. Walz responded, "We're not going to stop payments that feed children until we have the proof that things happened." Ellison said his office "doesn't have the authority to do a stop payment."

Walz's spokesperson responded Monday afternoon, saying the committee "has proven time and time again to be nothing more than a joke," adding that Walz "is glad to see fraudsters are going to prison. If the committee is concerned about corruption, they should investigate why President Trump continues to let fraudsters out of prison."

A spokesperson for Ellison on Monday said his office "disagrees with much of the contents of the report and believes it mischaracterizes much of what actually happened," saying "Republicans in Congress issued a report riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations in an effort to politicize the issue of fraud, instead of actually helping Minnesota protect tax dollars and go after fraudsters."

Ellison's spokesperson added, "The only type of criminal fraud that state law gives the Attorney General's Office the jurisdiction to prosecute is Medicaid fraud. Other criminal fraud falls under the jurisdiction of county and city attorneys or the federal government. It's also important to note that the Minnesota Attorney General's Office does not have the authority to oversee state agencies like the Department of Human Services or the Department of Education, it cannot dictate what actions those agencies do and do not take, and it does not have the authority to order those agencies to stop payments to providers or other vendors. In fact, federal regulations require Attorney General Ellison's Medicaid fraud team to be entirely separate from the Department of Human Services."