WASHINGTON – If it follows tradition, one thing is certain about Wednesday’s congressional hearing into alleged fraud in Minnesota — there will be plenty of partisan fireworks.
Whether it will shed light on the many allegations of fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs is another question.
U.S. Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and a Trump loyalist who spearheaded investigations into former President Joe Biden’s family, including his son Hunter, has now turned his attention toward Minnesota.
In a statement late last month, Comer said fraud is rampant in Minnesota, “raising serious questions about whether Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison failed to act or (were) complicit in the theft.”
The hearing, slated to start at 9 a.m. Central, comes just two days after Walz dropped his bid for a third term in the wake of rampant criticism over the fraud scandals.
Comer, a Kentucky Republican, has asked three Republican state lawmakers — Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson and Marion Rarick — to weigh in Wednesday on what he says is the large-scale misuse of federal funds in Minnesota. Yet to be seen is whether these GOP state lawmakers offer any hard evidence of systemic fraud in Minnesota’s safety net programs.
The lawmaker’s opening testimony was made available late Tuesday.
In her written statement, Robbins, the chair of a fraud prevention committee in the state House, says “Tim Walz and his Administration have willfully turned a blind eye to crime, in the face of countless whistleblower and Auditor reports, as well as stories by local investigative journalists and Bill Glahn, a fellow at Center of the American Experiment.”
Related: GOP’s Kristin Robbins says her Minnesota fraud prevention committee is not a political stunt. Is she right?
“These are actual crimes that must be punished,” says the statement from Robbins, who is running for governor and was Walz’s political rival before he abandoned his reelection bid Monday.
In his written testimony, Hudson, who is also a member of Robbins’ new committee, says he has “reviewed extensive audit findings, agency records, and legislative oversight materials concerning Minnesota’s administration of federally funded human services programs.”
Citing information from the Office of the Legislative Auditor, Hudson claims he found the structure of Minnesota’s state agencies to “reliably produce fraud, waste, and abuse across multiple service areas, regardless of program intent or stated safeguards.”
“The recent focus on childcare fraud is not an isolated scandal,” Hudson’s testimony reads. “It is the latest manifestation of a pattern that has repeated itself for decades across different programs, populations, and funding streams.”
Minnesota is under scrutiny by the Trump administration for allegations of fraud in daycare centers – and for an avalanche of other accusations of fraud in other programs that receive federal funds.
On Tuesday, Trump administration officials in a video unveiled a proposed new rule that would repeal Biden-era mandates that they say weakened accountability in childcare programs.
Among other things, the rule would end the requirement that taxpayer dollars must pay for childcare before services are rendered. That means states will no longer be forced to send payments to providers up front.
The new rule would also end the mandate for enrollment-based billing. Payments would be based upon verified attendance, not just enrollment, so providers couldn’t bill for children who never show up.
Rarick, also a member of the state Legislature’s fraud committee, says in his written testimony that he and Robbins had made contact through the social media site X with Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) whistleblowers and had a meeting with both current and former DHS employees.
“Their collective message has been consistent,” Rarick’s testimony says. “Instead of focusing on fraudsters, DHS leadership has focused its surveillance on employees discussing fraud with each other. Since then, their expressed fear of retaliation has intensified under an avalanche of fraud revelations.”
Comer has sent letters to seven current and former Minnesota state agency officials at the Department of Education and Department of Human Services, asking them to appear for behind-closed-door interviews on certain dates in late January and February and threatening them with subpoenas if they do not comply.
Last month, Comer also requested information from Walz and Ellison and said they have failed to fully respond to his panel’s request for documents and information. He has asked Ellison and Walz to appear at another hearing scheduled for Feb. 8.
Although Walz has decided against running for a third term, Comer has not toned down his attacks on the Democratic governor and Trump foe.
“Massive fraud of taxpayer dollars occurred on Tim Walz’s watch,” Comer said in a statement earlier this week. “He’s either complicit in this theft or grossly incompetent in preventing it. Though Tim Walz is not running for governor again, he cannot run from accountability.”
Watch Wednesday’s hearing below:
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