Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are escalating their investigation into Minnesota's sweeping fraud schemes, setting a hearing next week and demanding answers from Gov. Tim Walz's administration over what they say were glaring failures of oversight.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced lawmakers would hold a hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 7, evaluating the fraud scandal, its scale and whether the state's leadership could have done something to prevent exploitation from happening in the first place.
"Congress has a duty to conduct rigorous oversight of this heist and enact stronger safeguards to prevent fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, as well as strong sanctions to hold offenders accountable," Comer said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
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While the committee will also hear testimony from lawmakers in Minnesota, Republican lawmakers believe it is the Walz administration that holds the answers on how the problem got so large.
"Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota's social services programs. American taxpayers demand and deserve accountability for the theft of their hard-earned money," Comer said.
The Committee will hear from Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson and Marion Rarick - all Republican members of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
It's unclear if Walz or Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will accept the invitation.
When asked about whether he would cooperate with congressional investigations, Walz told Fox News Digital he believed the hearing would have little to do with the problem of fraud.
"We're always happy to work with Congress, though this committee has a track record of holding circus hearings that have nothing to do with the issue at hand. While the Governor has been working to ensure fraudsters go to prison, the president has been selling pardons to let them out," Walz's office said.
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The hearing is a part of the committee's own investigation into the Minnesota fraud, a separate effort from ongoing FBI probes.
The Oversight Committee's announcement comes as new revelations about fraud in Minnesota reveal that the state could have lost as much as $9 billion through abuse of its government assistance programs.
In recent months, investigators have unearthed sweeping fraud schemes masquerading as daycare centers, medical providers, food assistance programs and more. By fabricating services or inflating the number of people they claimed to serve, the schemes allegedly siphoned billions in government funds.
"In addition to conducting transcribed interviews with Minnesota state officials, the House Oversight Committee will hold hearings on fraud in Minnesota's social services programs to expose failures, identify solutions, and deliver accountability," Comer said.
Given their size and frequency, lawmakers have raised questions about how a state's lack of awareness of its own programs could have been so easily abused.
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Comer believes the lawmakers who have agreed to testify before the committee will provide insight into the visibility of the fraud rings and whether Walz was made aware of their scale ahead of shocking reporting that made Minnesota's shortcomings a matter of national attention.
"Next week, we will hear from Minnesota state lawmakers who sounded the alarm on this fraud - and whose warnings were ignored by the Walz administration. This misconduct cannot be swept aside, and Congress will not stop until taxpayers get the answers and accountability they deserve," Comer said.
