“Last year, the Minnesota State Senate passed, by a bipartisan 60-7 vote on SF 856, a commendable effort to hold Minnesota Medical Assistance administrators accountable should fraud occur in their programs. The DFL legislators in the House, instead of immediately moving that bill forward, are now stalling by offering petty fixes that rely on processes already proven to have failed us in the past, and that have resulted in fraud against those programs of billions of dollars.”
“Minnesotans want accountability and have seen that the Departments and current auditing practices are failing. It is time to move forward and launch the office of an Independent Inspector General to audit state programs. Pass SF 856 in the House.”
“However, before the House passes SF 856, there is a serious flaw in the bill that must be fixed. It must be removed by amendment.”
“My advisors have shown me a provision in SF 856 which renders it useless. The clause under ‘Exceptions for federal funding,’ forbids the I.G. to comply with or report on fraud if it costs the state money. That simply hides the fraud. It does not expose it. Worse, it puts Minnesota in the position of committing fraud against the federal government.”[i]
“Without removing that offending paragraph from the bill, the new law will be useless. If the I.G. finds that Minnesota will suffer an adverse effect from the fraud as a result of violating federal regulations and laws, the new law, as written, would prohibit the IG from doing and/or issuing a report about it.”
“What is it that Governor Walz and the DFL legislators mean to hide from us? We pay federal taxes, too. If Minnesota is cheating, we are all affected and have the right to know. I urge the House to immediately take up its version of SF 856, fix the flaws, and ensure that the I.G. can do his or her job.”
[i] Subd. 4, Exceptions for federal funding. Lines 8.12-8.15, SF 856, passed in 2025.