House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is set to accuse Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “enabling fraud” and retaliating against whistleblowers during a high-stakes congressional hearing examining alleged abuse of federal welfare programs in the state.
According to prepared remarks obtained ahead of the hearing, Comer will argue that Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of significant fraud risks in state-administered federal programs years before acknowledging the scope of the problem publicly.
“While Governor Walz hesitated, taxpayers lost billions. Attorney General Ellison has likewise claimed his office was aggressively holding fraudsters accountable, but when his statements were tested against the record, they fell apart,” Comer is expected to say.
He will further allege that the committee has interviewed more than 30 whistleblowers, including current state employees and Democrats, who claim they were ignored or punished for raising concerns.
“We have spoken with over thirty whistleblowers, many of them current employees and Democrats, who say they were ignored, retaliated against, and even surveilled for raising concerns,” Comer plans to state. “Instead of protecting the whistleblowers, the Walz administration protected the system that enabled fraud.”
The hearing follows the release of a 53-page committee report asserting that Walz and Ellison knew about fraud in Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program and certain high-risk Medicaid programs as early as spring 2019. The report also claims state officials were aware of fraud concerns in food aid programs administered by the Minnesota Department of Education as early as April 2020.
While the Committee continues to review documents and meet with whistleblowers, it is evident that Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison knew about the fraud in federal programs administered by the State of Minnesota much earlier than they told the American people,” the report states.
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Federal prosecutors have already charged multiple individuals in connection with the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future, alleging more than $240 million was stolen from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Investigations have since expanded into additional state-run programs, including Medicaid and childcare assistance initiatives.
Comer is expected to characterize the situation as “one of the most extensive breakdowns of oversight this Committee has ever examined.”
Billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen from social services programs while warnings piled up, whistleblowers spoke out, and state officials chose delay and denial over action,” his remarks say. “Federal prosecutors estimate that as much as $9 billion may have been stolen from just fourteen Medicaid programs administered by the State of Minnesota.”
Republicans on the committee argue the failures were systemic rather than isolated.
“What we’ve uncovered in Minnesota is not a paperwork error or a few bad actors slipping through the cracks. It is a sustained failure of leadership,” Comer is set to say.
The committee’s report also alleges that state leaders were reluctant to aggressively confront fraud for fear of political backlash from segments of Minneapolis’ politically active Somali community, a claim likely to draw fierce rebuttal from Minnesota officials.
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