Hello from the State Capitol,
This week, Minnesota House Republicans introduced their Top 25 bills for this session, ranging from tax relief to keeping boys out of girls’ sports. It’s exciting to be able to bring forward a conservative agenda while we’re in a full majority.
ASKING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR FRAUD INVESTIGATION ASSISTANCE
A formal request was sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi from Minnesota House Republicans this week, urging a Department of Justice investigation into the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse that is taking place within Minnesota’s state agencies. At minimum, $610 million of your tax dollars have been stolen, and some believe the total is well above $1 billion.
The request follows six years of documented mismanagement and significant losses to fraudsters in human services programs and other state-run programs. All of this has happened under Governor Walz’s tenure, and he has done nothing about it. If the Walz’s administration isn’t serious about stopping this problem in its tracks, maybe the U.S. Department of Justice will be.
NEW FRAUD COMMITTEE HITS GROUND RUNNING
Our new House fraud committee held its first hearing on Monday and focused on the lack of oversight of taxpayer-funded grants to state nonprofits. Can you believe there is no tracking mechanism for nonprofits? This is troublesome considering $2.6 billion dollars in state revenue was distributed to approximately 2500 different nonprofits across 27 state agencies, and 25% of the nonprofits received grants from more than one state agency.
AGENCY ANSWER TO STOPPING FRAUD: GIVE US MORE MONEY!
In committee Thursday morning, I questioned state human services officials if they had pursued having an outside agency investigate fraud within their department, as I had suggested many months ago. Not only was the answer no, but I was also told fraud only represented less than 1% of the human services budget. Which of course means “only” hundreds of millions of dollars.
DHS believes the best way to solve fraud within the agency is for state government to give it more money to hire more employees so it can investigate. In other words, allow the fox to guard the henhouse. It’s nonsensical thinking. These people actually think they need permission – and more money - to do the right thing and rein in fraud!
GOVERNOR WALZ’S EDUCATION BUDGET CUTS PROBLEMATIC
I have been hearing from numerous schools, including private schools, about Governor Walz’s budget cuts in K-12 Education.
Governor Walz’s budget would provide cuts to teacher pay, professional development and services to children with special needs. It would also deny certain textbooks to school-age children, yet it would give more money to state bureaucrats to micromanage our schools. Moving forward, Republicans will continue to work towards solutions that prioritize the needs of local schools – not an already bloated state government.
KEEP IN TOUCH
As always, if you ever have any legislative questions, please contact me. I can be reached at rep.steven.jacob@house.mn.gov or by phone at 651.296.2273.
Have a good weekend,
Steve