House Oversight Committee to hold hearing on alleged fraud in Minnesota public assistance programs

[ad_1] Washington — The Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee will maintain a listening to subsequent week on alleged fraud in Minnesota public help packages , Chairman James Comer, introduced Wednesday.

The listening to is ready to happen Jan. 7 and can embrace testimony from Minnesota GOP state lawmakers who've investigated public help fraud, Comer mentioned. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Legal professional Common Keith Ellison, each Democrats, have additionally been requested to testify at a second listening to on Feb. 10, Comer, a Kentucky Republican, mentioned.

"The U.S. Division of Justice is actively investigating, prosecuting, and charging fraudsters who've stolen billions from taxpayers, and Congress has an obligation to conduct rigorous oversight of this heist and enact stronger safeguards to forestall fraud in taxpayer-funded packages, in addition to robust sanctions to carry offenders accountable," Comer mentioned in a press release.

The Home Oversight Committee is investigating allegations of cash laundering and fraud in Minnesota's public help packages. Comer earlier this month requested Walz and Ellison to show over to Home investigators paperwork and communications concerning the state's packages and has sought transcribed interviews with state officers.

"Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Legal professional Common Keith Ellison have both been asleep on the wheel or complicit in a large fraud involving taxpayer {dollars} in Minnesota's social companies packages," Comer mentioned. "American taxpayers demand and deserve accountability for the theft of their hard-earned cash."

Republican state Rep. Walter Hudson, one of many three Minnesota lawmakers who is ready to testify earlier than Congress subsequent week, advised CBS Information Minnesota he hopes the listening to will supply "nuance and perspective" on the fraud problem.

"What we have seen prior to now few days within the wake of the Nick Shirley video is a whole lot of sensationalism from a whole lot of totally different angles and makes an attempt to show this right into a partisan boxing match, when a degree of truth, just some months in the past, this was a really bipartisan problem," Hudson mentioned.

Greater than 90 folks face federal expenses on account of what a prime prosecutor in Minnesota mentioned was "industrial-scale fraud." The prosecutor, Joe Thompson, mentioned earlier this month that the whole quantity of fraud in Minnesota may attain $9 billion billed throughout 14 Medicaid packages that have been deemed "excessive danger" for fraud . Walz and different state officers, nevertheless, have questioned that quantity.

The scandal started when the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which is predicated in Minnesota, was accused of stealing from the Federal Little one Vitamin Program by falsely claiming to distribute meals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater than 75 folks have been charged within the COVID-era fraud scheme, and at the least 56 have pleaded responsible.

Since then, federal prosecutors have uncovered alleged fraud schemes involving a now-defunct housing stabilization program in Minnesota and a Medicaid-backed state program that gives companies to kids with autism. Homeland Safety brokers are additionally conducting investigations into youngster care facilities within the state after a conservative YouTuber named Nick Shirley posted a video on-line over the weekend alleging that just about a dozen facilities that obtain public {dollars} will not be offering any companies.

A CBS Information evaluation of the day care facilities talked about by Shirley discovered that each one however two have lively licenses, in response to state data, and state regulators visited the lively areas inside the final six months. Whereas the facilities had been cited for security, cleanliness and different points, there was no recorded proof of fraud.

Nonetheless, in response to the allegations, the Division of Well being and Human Companies introduced Tuesday that it has frozen federal youngster care funds for Minnesota.

President Trump has denounced Minnesota leaders for his or her dealing with of the packages and attacked Somali immigrants , claiming they've "ripped off" the state. Many, however not all, of the defendants charged within the fraud schemes are of Somali descent.

In response to the Trump administration's choice to withhold child-care funding to Minnesota, Walz accused the president of "politicizing the problem to defund packages that assist Minnesotans."

"That is Trump's lengthy recreation," he wrote on social media. "We have spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It is a critical problem — however this has been his plan all alongside."