Lawmakers grill Gov. Walz over fraud scandal

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Gov. Tim Walz appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, answering questions about how billions of dollars in social service funds were stolen by fraudsters in Minnesota.

Committee Chairman James Comer accused the Walz administration of allowing warnings to go unheeded as money was misappropriated.

“Billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen from social service programs while warnings piled up,” Comer said. “We’re talking about fake invoices, meals that never existed, luxury cars and overseas investments. All paid by the American taxpayer.”

Walz defended the state’s response, pushing back on suggestions that eliminating the programs would have prevented the fraud.

“I see folks making the claim that, well, you wouldn’t have any fraud if you just cut all these programs if you just zeroed them out,” Walz said. “That is true. If we did not provide food for our children, no one would steal from that program. But there would also be a lot of hungry children.”

ICE enforcement and deaths of two U.S. citizens

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison argued that the Trump administration used the fraud as justification for a large-scale ICE operation in the state.

“The Trump administration, on the pretext of fighting fraud, unleashed over 3,000 masked armed agents on the streets of Minnesota,” Ellison said. “And as a result, two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents — Renee Goode and Alex Peretti.”

Ellison said the state is being blocked from the investigations into those deaths.

Medicare funding freeze and state lawsuit

Last week, the White House announced it is freezing $243 million in Medicare funding for Minnesota over fraud concerns. On Monday, state lawyers filed suit, warning that pulling those funds will hurt low-income Minnesota families.

The fraud scandal previously led Walz to abandon his bid for re-election.

Copyright 2026 Gray DC. All rights reserved.