Lawmakers in the Minnesota House are holding a public hearing Thursday on Governor Tim Walz’s (DFL) proposed fraud prevention package that looks to crack down on financial crimes that cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
DFL Representative David Pinto (St. Paul) explained what they're looking at on the WCCO Radio Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar Thursday morning.
"There's just a general interest, I think, across all legislators in saying, 'what can we do to make sure the public dollars are are going to the people who actually need them the most?' It's kind of the core of Minnesota values. So I'm very hopeful that quite a lot of this will have a broad support," Pinto said.
The bill looks to stop fraud before it happens while increasing criminal penalties. Back in January, Walz set up a new fraud investigation unit as part of his fraud package.
Pinto tells says the legislation is getting bipartisan support.
"A number of different provisions that kind of all fall under the categories of stopping fraud before it occurs, and making sure that the administration has tools that they need to go after folks who are defrauding our programs, and then increasing criminal penalties as well," Pinto explains.
Walz is proposing using an artificial intelligence pilot program to flag potential problems early, while doing more to address Medicaid fraud and giving agencies more authority to stop payment to organizations and places suspected of stealing from public programs.
The hearing in the House comes one day after defendants Aimee Bock and Salim Ahmed Said were found guilty of accused of orchestrating the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, defrauding the federal government of funds that were meant to feed children in need during the COVID pandemic.