Senate GOP demands Tim Walz explain alleged $9 billion fraud scandal

FIRST ON FOX: The entire Senate Republican Party has demanded that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz provide a paper trail of the state’s role in Minnesota’s fraud scandal, intensifying scrutiny in Washington, DC.

In a letter led by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Republicans reiterated that Congress controls the flow of taxpayer dollars that would be used in the ongoing scandal, where federal prosecutors estimate up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycares, food programs and health clinics.

“The state’s apparently negligent handling of federal funds raises significant concerns about the adequacy of state oversight, audit, and compliance systems to protect taxpayer dollars intended to support vulnerable children and working families,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, these latest reports appear to reflect only the tip of the iceberg.”

Senate Republicans push to expel, misrepresent fraudsters amid Minnesota scandal

Minnesota Republican lawmakers are calling on Gov. Tim Walz to resign over the exploding fraud crisis. (Getty Images)

They support the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) decision to freeze funding for several child care grant programs in the state, including the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and social services block grant programs.

Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, asked Walz to provide receipts on several issues and warned that failure to do so could lead to an even greater drying up of the flow of federal money flowing to Minnesota.

SCARING AUDIT REVEALS MORE FRAUD CONCERNS INSIDE MINNESOTA’S LARGEST AGENCY WITH FABRICATED DOCUMENTS, ‘MAICONDUCT’

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., led a letter from the entire Senate Republican Party demanding that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz provide a paper trail of the state’s role in Minnesota’s fraud scandal. (Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In the letter, supported by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., lawmakers demanded that Walz clarify how the state was complying with federally-led audits and what audit requirements the state has “adopted or plans to implement in the near term to support evidence of legitimate use of federal child care payments.”

They also requested a detailed overview of several issues, such as how often the state conducted on-site checks, inspections or fact-finding visits to child care centers that received federal funds, and specifically asked for examples of any information discovered about fake children, false attendance records, overbilling, ineligible registrations and fictitious or false business structures.

SCARING AUDIT REVEALS MORE FRAUD CONCERNS INSIDE MINNESOTA’S LARGEST AGENCY WITH FABRICATED DOCUMENTS, ‘MAICONDUCT’

The letter is supported by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Lawmakers also questioned how many investigations the state has conducted into the matter since 2018, what enforcement actions the state has taken and why the Walz administration has so far failed to comply with a series of recommendations from a report from the DHS Office of the Inspector General that included measures to recover overpayments, strengthen monitoring of child care attendance and implement real-time electronic attendance reporting.

Cassidy and Senate Republicans gave Walz until Jan. 22 to comply with their list of demands.

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“The Constitution grants Congress the power to manage finances,” they write. “And the United States Senate exercises its duty to ensure proper stewardship of federal taxpayer dollars for child care programs, and we take that responsibility very seriously.”