Minnesota Governor Tim Walz testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee on March 4. Asked who lied about a court order his administration used to justify restarting payments to a program at the center of a $300 million federal fraud case, Walz told lawmakers he couldn’t say.
Rep. Jim Jordan pressed Walz on why his administration restarted payments to Feeding Our Future after stopping them in March 2021. Walz said his agency believed the court required the payments to resume. The judge in that case publicly denied ever issuing such an order. Jordan asked who was lying — Walz or the court. “I can’t tell you, Congressman,” Walz said.
Chairman James Comer asked whether Walz stopped payments when fraud concerns surfaced. Walz did not dispute that payments continued. Comer stated the money kept flowing until late 2025, when the federal government intervened.
Rep. Byron Donalds walked Walz through spending surges across multiple programs. Feeding Our Future received $307,000 the year Walz took office. Three years later, the figure reached $199 million. Autism center funding hit $342 million by 2024. Each time Donalds cited a number, Walz gave the same answer: “Not specifically, but I know it increased.”
The questions drew from a 54-page interim report the committee released hours before the hearing. Titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing,” the report was based on transcribed interviews with nine current and former state officials conducted over 36 hours. Its central finding: Walz’s office knew about fraud concerns by April 2020 at the Minnesota Department of Education and as early as 2019 at the Department of Human Services — contradicting his public statements.
State agencies had clear legal authority to suspend payments to providers suspected of fraud. Officials continued funding them anyway, citing litigation threats and fear of being perceived as racist. The FBI never instructed Minnesota to continue payments to any provider under investigation.
An estimated $300 million in child nutrition funds was stolen through the Feeding Our Future program alone. The committee estimates total losses across Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could reach $9 billion.
The committee has spoken with more than 30 whistleblowers, including current state employees and Democrats. Rep. Brandon Gill cited testimony from staff told not to report fraud because doing so would be called racist or Islamophobic. Whistleblowers described the retaliation as “nearly unbearable” — denied promotions, denied vacations, careers damaged for speaking up.
Rep. Tim Burchett asked Walz whether he was aware of these reports. “Not specifically, no,” Walz said. One whistleblower told the committee her supervisor at the Department of Human Services threatened to make her job difficult. That supervisor later received a promotion.
Attorney General Keith Ellison faced pointed questions of his own. Rep. Andy Biggs pressed Ellison about a 2021 meeting with Feeding Our Future affiliates later convicted of fraud, and $10,000 in campaign donations Ellison received from those individuals afterward. Ellison disputed the characterization. Majority Whip Tom Emmer accused Ellison of obstructing the investigation in exchange for donations and said if the concerns prove true, Ellison should be disbarred and jailed.
Federal prosecutors have charged 98 defendants in Minnesota fraud cases. Sixty-four have been convicted. The committee has demanded sworn depositions from both Walz and Ellison and says its investigation continues.
Walz dropped his reelection bid in January as the scandal intensified. Across hours of sworn testimony, the chief executive of a state where billions in taxpayer funds disappeared told Congress, repeatedly, that he didn’t know the specifics.
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