By The House Oversight Committee released an interim report on March 4, 2026, concluding that the administration of Tim Walz was aware early in his tenure of significant fraud in federally funded social service programs but failed to take sufficient steps to stop it.
The report—titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion”—draws on transcribed interviews with nine current and former officials from the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Both agencies oversaw programs central to the allegations, including child nutrition initiatives and childcare assistance.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) summarized the panel’s findings bluntly.
🔥 WATCH: Chairman @RepJamesComer opens our hearing on Minnesota fraud.
"For years, Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison presided over one of the most extensive breakdowns of oversight this Committee has ever examined."
Walz and Ellison will testify today. pic.twitter.com/KrsSw90fDh
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) March 4, 2026
“Testimony obtained by the Committee reveals that Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud in social service programs, lied about their knowledge of the fraud, and retaliated against employees who dared to raise concerns.”
He added: “Instead of protecting vulnerable Americans, they handed over billions in taxpayer dollars to fraudsters and threw their own state employees under the bus.”
SOMALI FRAUD: Democrats refuse to address the root causes that resulted in 85% of Minnesota's fraud indictments are Somali. The Islamic patronage system imported from Somali corrupts everyone – including the state's politicians like Tim Walz. Somalis represent just 2% of the… pic.twitter.com/utR5uHdwkj
— @amuse (@amuse) March 4, 2026
The investigation traces its origins to federal prosecutions exposing sweeping pandemic-era fraud schemes, according to Just The News. The most prominent centered on the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, where prosecutors charged dozens of individuals—many from Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community—with diverting federal funds meant for child nutrition programs. Authorities initially estimated the fraud at roughly $250 million in 2021, a case that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland described as the largest pandemic-era fraud uncovered to that point.
Democrats have shown little interest in uncovering fraud.
Democrats claim to care about fraud, but today's hearing says otherwise.
In 9 interviews leading up to this hearing, Republicans asked 36h 46m of questions on MN fraud.
Democrats? Just 3h 14m.
And during today's hearing with Walz, they've asked ZERO questions about the fraud. pic.twitter.com/X6F5keqmpD
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) March 4, 2026
According to the committee’s report, testimony indicates that concerns about irregularities in Minnesota’s food programs reached the governor’s office by April 2020, with complaints stretching back to 2018. One official, Minnesota Department of Education Assistant Commissioner Daron Korte, confirmed that complaints surfaced between 2018 and 2021 and indicated that both Walz’s office and the office of Attorney General Keith Ellison would have been aware of them.
In the Feeding Our Future case, the Minnesota Department of Education identified serious deficiencies in March 2021 and initially moved to halt funding. Yet payments resumed by late April after officials concluded the state could face litigation if it continued blocking funds.
Korte testified: “[We] could unilaterally make that decision, but we just knew, with Feeding our Future, it was going to end up in court and had the potential to be overturned.”
The nonprofit’s leadership threatened legal action, arguing racial discrimination. Meanwhile, state officials approved additional feeding sites despite mounting concerns, partly because the U.S. Department of Agriculture declined to provide written backing for terminating the organization under federal rules.
Korte explained: “I think they were supportive generally of what we were saying we wanted to do, but they weren’t willing to provide anything in writing. And we felt like, without having that backup from USDA that we just didn’t have firm enough ground to stand on to continue to deny those sites in the face of the threatened lawsuit.”
Fraud concerns were not limited to nutrition programs. Testimony regarding Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program pointed to similar warning signs years earlier. Former state human services commissioner Tony Lourey told investigators that Walz’s office—through then-Chief of Staff Chris Schmitter—received communications about potential fraud as early as 2019.
Legislative auditors had already flagged pervasive problems. Reports dating to 2018 warned of possible fraud rates exceeding 50 percent in some areas, along with overbilling and kickback schemes—warnings issued before Walz entered office but continuing during his administration.
The committee formally opened its probe in December 2025 after new evidence surfaced of irregularities in daycare assistance programs. Estimates of the total losses vary widely. Some reports suggest fraud could reach as high as $18 billion across affected programs, while federal figures more commonly cite roughly $9 billion in stolen funds.
Walz—who served as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election—has previously acknowledged fraud in Minnesota programs and said his administration prioritized addressing the problem. The committee’s report, however, contends that evidence shows officials were aware of systemic abuse from the earliest months of his governorship but failed to act until federal investigators forced the issue.
Walz and Ellison appeared before the committee on March 4, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., answering questions about their knowledge of the fraud and their response to it. Lawmakers emphasized that the investigation remains ongoing, with the panel continuing its oversight of federal funds and examining potential reforms aimed at preventing future waste and abuse.
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