DHS Bureaucrats Attempt To Shift BlameIt is essential that all involved in stealing our hard-earned money are held accountable. However, we also must take action to ensure that this type of industrialized fraud can never happen again. This means demanding answers and establishing a better auditing process over state bureaucracies. Many unelected officials within our state bureaucracies seem to believe they are untouchable and immune from critique. That is going to change. Department of Human Services Director of State Government Relations, Kristy Graume, exemplified this defiant attitude during questioning this week from our Committee. Though I was encouraged to see many of my DFL counterparts sharing my sense of frustration over her lack of transparency, not all DFL legislators were keen to find out answers. In one instance, Chair Mohamud Noor (D-Minneapolis) blocked me from getting a response to a very basic line of questioning: After I asked Director Graume, "With regard to whistleblowers... When did you know it, and what did you know, and has anybody been fired?," she didn't even have time to start speaking before Chair Noor interjected, "I don't know if that is the right question for Director Graume. I think we will get the Commissioner to come and testify on some of these issues." The taxpaying citizens of Minnesota deserve more than canned answers from the DHS Commissioner. We demand real answers from the boots-on-the-ground employees who neglected to safeguard taxpayers' hard-earned dollars. Click HERE to watch the full exchange:  At the end of the day, this all leads back to electoral power. From the theft of tax dollars that is conveniently funneled back into DFL campaign donations, to electoral fraud, we will leave no stone unturned. I look forward to continued updates as the Legislative Session moves forward. Tom Murphy MN State Representative District 9B Proudly Serving Otter Tail and Douglas Counties |