(NewsNation) — The House Oversight Committee will hear testimony from several Minnesota lawmakers next week about mounting accusations of social-aid fraud in the state.
Republican state Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson and Marion Rarick are scheduled to attend the hearing on Jan. 7, according to committee chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. Democrats have not yet identified any witnesses.
“The U.S. Department of Justice is actively investigating, prosecuting, and charging fraudsters who have stolen billions from taxpayers,” Comer said. “And 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 has requested the Department of the Treasury provide all relevant suspicious activity reports — which are filed by businesses or financial institutions to report potential financial crimes — to supplement the hearing.
He said he’s requested similar documentation and communications records from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Comer has alleged the trio of Republican witnesses “sounded the alarm on this fraud” but were ignored by the Walz administration.
Robbins, chair of Minnesota’s oversight committee, has criticized state leaders for continuing to fund facilities operated by a man indicted for money laundering in a massive fraud scandal tied to the Feeding Our Future nonprofit.
“It’s unconscionable that they haven’t done the most basic due diligence to cross-check that Feeding Our Future defendants aren’t getting additional state money,” Robbins said.
Walz has defended his administration, pointing to years of work “cracking down on fraud” and accusing the Trump administration of politicizing the investigation to “defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
“We have created additional checks and balances. We have hired investigators, auditors and law enforcement … we have learned from this — as we would hope any administration would,” Walz wrote in an op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune, published Dec. 12.
Walz and Ellison have also been invited to testify before the committee on Feb. 10.