House panel faults Walz and Ellison for lax fraud oversight in federal aid

The U.S. House Oversight Committee’s report accuses Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of a major oversight failure in handling federally funded fraud, alleging state officials knew of systemic fraud as early as 2019 but continued payments to suspicious providers; agencies reportedly had power to suspend payments without court or federal direction. The findings estimate about $300 million in federal child-nutrition funds were lost to fraud and up to $9 billion in Medicaid funds were at risk due to oversight gaps, with whistleblowers allegedly retaliated against while leadership focused on political fallout. Walz’s office dismissed the committee’s actions as partisan.