Congress Starts to Hold Minnesota Accountable for Fraud

Congress continues to untangle the Minnesota fraud scandal, which was first flagged in Congress by Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minn.) in 2018 and then repeatedly brought up by whistleblowers.  There have been three hearings on Capitol Hill since the beginning of the second session of the 119th Congress exposing how Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and his administration ignored years of reports about the extensive waste of tax dollars.

On January 7, 2026, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held the first part of a hearing, “Oversight of Fraud and Misuse of Federal Funds in Minnesota,” where committee members questioned Minnesota state representatives and former Department of Justice Special Counsel Brendan Ballou regarding the reports of fraud in federal grant programs issued to the state.  During the hearing, Rep Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove) noted that, “Tim Walz and his Administration have willfully turned a blind eye to crime, in the face of countless whistleblower and Auditor reports.”

The fraud was exposed again at the January 21, 2026, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Surveillance hearing, “When Public Funds Are Abused: Addressing Fraud and the Theft of Taxpayer Dollars.”  YouTuber Nick Shirley, whose viral videos helped uncover the Minnesota daycare fraud scandal in late December 2025, testified that, “It seems like [Gov. Walz] and his state have been enabling this fraud to continue to go on for years.”

A third hearing was held on February 4, 2026, by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, “Somali Scammers: Fighting Fraud in Minnesota and Beyond.”  In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, “Minnesota was not caught unaware; Minnesota was warned repeatedly, unmistakably, and years in advance.”

The failure to stop the fraud led to the loss of at least $9 billion.  For his role in this massive scandal, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Gov. Walz its January 2026 Porker of the Month.  Ironically, Gov. Walz cited Minnesota’s “generosity culture” as the reason that fraud has occurred.  While this claim is partially accurate, congressional hearings confirm that the main reason for the fraud was his negligence.

Recognizing Gov. Walz’s culpability is necessary, but one needs to look at the underlying causes including the governor’s claims about the state’s “generosity culture.”  While it very well may be the cause for so many welfare fraud instances across the country, particularly when federal dollars are on the line, there must be clear guidance that such generosity is not a blank check to promote fraudulent activities.  As Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) succinctly put it during the February 4 hearing, “[The federal government] was not equipped from the beginning to be a welfare agency.” 

With appropriate fraud reduction guardrails in place for many of these programs from the outset, it would be more difficult for Gov. Walz to be irresponsible (or “generous”) with the taxpayer dollars that feed into his state.  It would also prevent similar problems in other states like California, Colorado, Illinois, and New York, for which access to certain federal child care and family assistance funding has been frozen by the Department of Health and Human Services.