CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (Nexstar) — Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday asked the Texas Workforce Commission and Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate potential day care fraud and crack down on any fraud the agencies might find.
Hours earlier, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he was suspending his reelection campaign amid scrutiny over fraud in his state’s subsidized child care program.
“Recently, the Trump Administration and independent journalists have discovered potential systematic fraud in subsidized childcare systems of other states,” Abbott’s directive said. “State agencies have a duty to take proactive steps to prevent, detect, and eliminate the misuse of taxpayer funds.”
According to TWC’s website, the agency helps manage Texas’ Child Care Services program that helps low-income families afford child care services.
In his directive, Abbott lauded both TWC and HHSC for their fraud-prevention work, contrasting with Minnesota.
“These strong anti-fraud measures have shown results as Texas’ percentage of improper payment rates is 0.43 percent, compared to Minnesota’s approximately 11 percent according to the most recently available federal data,” Abbott wrote. “However, more can be done to protect Texas taxpayers.”
Abbott has asked TWC Chairman Jose A. “Joe” Esparza and HHSC Executive Director Stephanie Muth to:
- Identify high-risk childcare providers and conduct additional site visits;
- Review data collection efforts to make sure fraud is being caught;
- Ensure childcare providers are accurately reporting the number of children under their care;
- Conduct reviews of the oversight processes for local development boards to verify a statewide standard is upheld;
- Enhance access to childcare fraud reporting;
- Submit all childcare fraud investigations to federal or state prosecutors.
Abbott has asked the agencies to provide a progress report by Jan. 30 with a final report on Feb. 27.
HHSC directed all questions about implementation to Gov. Abbott’s office.
Nexstar reached out to TWC for comment on how this would be implemented. Neither responded in time for our story.