Cornyn, Senate GOP Blast Tim Walz for Abuse of Taxpayer Dollars, Demand Accountability for Minnesota Fraud

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and the entire Senate Republican Conference sent a letter led by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, demanding accountability from outgoing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz amid widespread reports of fraud and abuse of federal child care funding in Minnesota. This letter builds on Sen. Cornyn’s recently introduced Fraud Accountability Act, which would explicitly add fraud as a deportable offense under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and the Trump administration’s creation of a new Assistant Attorney General for Fraud to address the rampant misuse of taxpayer dollars across the country.

Under Tim Walz’s watch, front groups that claimed to provide social services stole billions of taxpayer dollars that could exceed $9 billion.Excerpts of the letter are below, and the full letter can be found here.

The lawmakers wrote: “We write to express serious concern regarding recent reports and federal investigations alleging widespread fraud and misuse of federal funds within Minnesota’s state-administered child care assistance programs. The state’s apparent negligent management of federal funds raises significant concerns about the adequacy of the state’s oversight, verification, and compliance systems for safeguarding taxpayer dollars intended to support vulnerable children and working families.”

“Some authorities estimate that billions in federal funds across various programs, including child care, nutrition, Medicaid, and housing assistance, may have been misappropriated since 2018,” they continued.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has acted promptly to freeze child care payments to Minnesota pending verification and audits of how funds were used. The Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, and the Senate is exercising its role to ensure proper stewardship of federal taxpayer dollars for child care programs,” they concluded.