Dear Neighbor, The legislature is now in the final week of the 2026 session but the last day that we can actually pass bills is Sunday, May 17th at midnight. Here’s a rundown of some recent developments in St. Paul: House passes anti-fraud bill  Minnesotans scored a major victory Thursday, May 7th, as the House passed significant anti-fraud legislation on a 127-5 vote. This marks a major and long-overdue step toward dismantling the culture of fraud that has grown to crisis levels in Minnesota after nearly two decades of uninterrupted Democratic control of the executive branch. The bill (S.F. 856) creates an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that would operate independently of the Governor’s control with future law enforcement authority to investigate fraud wherever they find it and build cases. They will then work with local, state or federal prosecutors to pursue charges and convictions. The OIG will provide the transparency and accountability our state desperately to get a handle on the massive fraud problem that has rocked our state. On the House floor, I spoke about why this bill is important. Let’s start with January of 2025, when Jody Harpstead was the DHS commissioner and said there’s more rumors of fraud, than there is actual fraud, while testifying about Housing Stabilization Services. Later that same year, then-First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson estimated that up to $9 billion (or roughly half of the $18 billion spent since 2018) in Minnesota’s social services and Medicaid programs may be fraudulent. Thompson described the situation as "industrial-scale fraud" that has overwhelmed state programs. The leaders of Minnesota’s largest state agency, DHS, have looked the other way as taxpayers were being robbed. This is a big reason why House Republicans established the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy when we gained power in the House prior to this biennium. The GOP members of the Fraud Committee decided that we were going to reach out to the DHS whistleblowers and within literally hours after I contacted them on X, they were eager and excited to tell us their story. That group of 480 initial whistleblowers within DHS grew and, now, is more than 1,000 across multiple state agencies joining together on X to tell their stories and shine a spotlight on fraud in Minnesota. Aside from simply protecting taxpayers, the bill we passed on Thursday is for those people who came forward and shared what they knew despite potential risks. These are the frontline workers who were retaliated against and had their jobs and their families threatened. As egregious as it may sound, some of these workers were even asked by supervisors where their children’s bus stops are and where they go to school. Last Thursday, May 7th, the House finally passed the IOG bill because nothing else has worked. Where has Attorney General Keith Ellison been this whole time? He’s certainly not prosecuting much. Where has everybody else been, including Gov. Tim Walz himself? Nothing would have happened if the feds had not stepped in. For now, it is great to see we are on the brink of more accountability in our state agencies. This is finally something that we can do to address our own issues instead of relying on the feds to clean up the mess that we created. At last, we have a solution that’s independent from a governor and has law enforcement authority. The Senate passed the bill and it is headed to governor for his signature. Health bill approved The House also approved a major health bill (S.F. 4612) Thursday that marks one of the most consequential welfare reform victories in decades by restoring work requirements for able-bodied individuals without children and accountability to Medicaid. It will help save taxpayers money long term, prevent billions in federal penalties and future tax increases that Minnesotans would otherwise be forced to pay, and clean up fraud and abuse by strengthening eligibility verification and oversight. Republicans have spent years pushing to bring greater accountability and common sense back to public assistance programs. This legislation delivers a landmark win by requiring able-bodied Medicaid recipients to either work or volunteer their time for 80 hours per month, participate in job training, or pursue educational opportunities in order to qualify for benefits. The bill also improves oversight protections for taxpayers by increasing the frequency of eligibility reviews, data matching, and cross-checking records against death databases, helping reduce improper payments, fraud, and abuse that have burdened government programs for years. Approval of the legislation is essential to sparing Minnesota taxpayers from steep financial consequences imposed by Washington, D.C. If the state fails to meet federal tax conformity standards, Minnesota could lose an estimated $3.5 billion each year, potentially triggering significant state tax increases to cover the shortfall. Although the primary focus of the bill is ensuring compliance with federal Medicaid requirements, it also contains several targeted reforms that provide direct benefits to Minnesotans, including children with disabilities, physical therapists and their patients, and workers in the mortuary profession. Gun-confiscation bill All 34 Democrats in the Senate walked the plank last week to pass an overreaching gun-confiscation bill (S.F. 4067) on a strict, party-line vote. This bill represents one of the most radical anti-gun agendas in the nation, banning most semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns based on a single common feature and severely limiting magazines. It also forces every existing owner to register their firearms and magazines with the BCA and renew every three years, with felony penalties for failing to comply. It also re-enacts the binary trigger ban retroactively to Jan. 1, 2025. These provisions would do more to penalize law-abiding Minnesotans who use these firearms and magazines for self-defense, hunting and sport shooting than they would impact violent criminals who don’t follow the laws anyway. The good news is House Republicans are going to keep this bill from becoming law. After gaining a tie in the House, we successfully negotiated the full power of the Speaker’s Office and can determine which bills are received and acknowledged from the Senate. House Republicans have the Speaker’s prerogative to recognize the Senate gun bill SF4067, or not. The same goes with the outrageous spending bill Senate Democrats compiled this session by rolling 24 separate finance bills into one monstrosity omnibus bill. It’s good that House Republicans have the Speaker’s prerogative this session to serve as a backstop against these bad bills and others. But look out if the Democrats were to regain full control of the Capitol because it would result in a barrage of gun grabs and unconstitutional omnibus bills to serve radical interests at the expense of most Minnesotans. |