MN Republican lawmakers to testify on fraud before U.S. House panel

Three Republican members of the Minnesota House are set to testify Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Oversight Committee for a hearing on fraud and misuse of federal funds.

Rep. Kirstin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, the chair of Minnesota’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee and a Republican candidate for governor in 2026, as well as Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, and Rep. Marion Rarick, R-Maple Lake, are scheduled to testify. Hudson and Rarick also serve on the state’s fraud committee.

Members of the Republican-majority U.S. House have recently ramped up their probe into government program fraud in Minnesota. Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, has issued requests to multiple state officials to testify before the Oversight Committee.

“American taxpayers demand and deserve accountability for the theft of their hard-earned money,” Comer said in a news release ahead of the hearings. “The U.S. Department of Justice is actively investigating, prosecuting, and charging fraudsters who have stolen billions from taxpayers, and Congress has a duty to conduct rigorous oversight of this heist and enact stronger safeguards to prevent fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, as well as strong sanctions to hold offenders accountable.”

Comer said the Oversight Committee will hold future hearings on fraud. He’s invited Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to a February hearing, blaming the top elected officials for not doing enough to address the problem in the state.

Walz, who ended his bid for a third term as governor this week as political pressure on fraud continues to mount, has pointed to recent actions of his administration — such as canceling payments in a fraud-beset housing program, ordering third-party audits and the appointment of a top anti-fraud official — as signs that he is tackling the problem.

Ellison pointed to his office’s work to combat fraud in federally-funded programs, including prosecutions in “over 300 Medicaid fraud cases” where his office “won over $80 million in recoveries.”

“Attorney General Ellison has put fraudsters in prison while defending our tax dollars and the services they pay for,” his office said in a statement. “Attorney General Ellison will review Representative Comer’s invitation and respond at the appropriate time.”

Comer also has asked other state officials to give testimony to the committee. Former Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead, who resigned last January, got a letter from the chairman in December requesting she provide testimony in an in-person transcribed interview on Feb. 6. Comer said the committee will have to “evaluate the use of the compulsory process” if she did not testify voluntarily.

A similar letter went out to Eric Grumdahl, the former assistant commissioner of Homelessness and Housing Supports at DHS, who left his job before federal prosecutors announced fraud charges in the state’s Medicaid-funded housing stabilization services program.

Other officials with DHS and the Minnesota Department of Education also got letters from Comer.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who is leading prosecutions in the $250 million Feeding Our Future children’s meal program fraud case and in Medicaid-funded programs, has estimated fraud in Minnesota could top $9 billion.

Walz and officials in his administration have disputed that number, saying Thompson has presented no evidence to back it up. Walz on Tuesday called that estimate “defamation” of the state.

The hearing starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Wednesday. It can be viewed at oversight.house.gov/hearing.

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