House Republicans Block Effort to Stop Fraudsters from Receiving State Grants
ST. PAUL, MN - During debate on an anti-fraud bill that passed with unanimous support, Minnesota House Republicans voted against an amendment authored by Rep. Emma Greenman (DFL-Minneapolis) that prohibits entities that are found to commit fraudulent acts from receiving future state grants. It also sets up minimum eligibility criteria to help protect taxpayer dollars and the programs Minnesotans rely on every day.
Rep. Greenman released the following statement:
“Fraud - whether it’s misclassification fraud, medical assistance fraud, or any fraud on our public programs -- steals from taxpayers, cheats the Minnesotans who rely on those public programs, and it undermines the public trust.”
“If we are serious about deterring and preventing fraud against our public programs, it is critical that when entities break these state laws and rip off the state, they are barred from getting state dollars from other grants or programs.”
“It is infuriating to see Republicans give speech after speech saying that they care about preventing fraud, but when an actual solution is put in front of them, it’s a hard ‘no,’ just because it includes abusive private-sector bosses. If they’re serious about strengthening our states’ tools to deter and fight all types of fraud, and not just when you can use it to score political points, they would have voted yes.”
The bill the amendment reflects previously passed the State Government Committee on May 26 with bipartisan support but was later voted down by Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, preventing it from reaching the House Floor.
###