The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing next week targeting the alleged fraud in Minnesota public assistance programs.
The announcement came from the committee Chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) on Wednesday.
The hearing is set to take place January 7 and will include testimony from Minnesota GOP state lawmakers who have investigated public assistance fraud, Comer said. That includes Minnesota Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove) who is running for governor of the state against current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Robbins is also the chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy.
Rep. Walter Hudson (R) and Rep. Marion Rarick (R), both also on the Fraud Committee in Minnesota, have also been asked to testify.
Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats, have also been asked to testify at a second hearing scheduled for February 10.
Walz responded in a statement already, saying that he is “happy to work with Congress, though this committee has a track record of holding circus hearings that have nothing to do with the issue at hand.”
The action from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has implemented a funding freeze for Minnesota’s child care programs. President Donald Trump’s administration made the announcement Tuesday, demanding an audit of some day care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.
"The U.S. Department of Justice is actively investigating, prosecuting, and charging fraudsters who have stolen billions from taxpayers, and Congress has a duty to conduct rigorous oversight of this heist and enact stronger safeguards to prevent fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, as well as strong sanctions to hold offenders accountable," Rep. Comer said in a statement.
Federal investigators are demanding an immediate audit of specific providers following social media allegations and a broader federal inquiry into state-administered programs, according to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill. They are also demanding detailed receipts and records from providers.
"Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota's social services programs," Comer said. "American taxpayers demand and deserve accountability for the theft of their hard-earned money."
Many Republicans have seized on a right-wing influencer's video posted last Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. The video by Nick Shirley has racked up millions of views.
A CBS News investigation, along with WCCO-TV reporter Jonah Kaplan, found some safety violations at those daycares, but no recorded evidence of fraud so far. CBS News has also gone to several of the sites shown in the video and found them to be operating.
Walz continues to defend his administration's handling of the fraud and released a statement taking aim at the video and at President Trump, saying in part, "we've spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It's a serious issue, but this has been his plan all along. He's politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans."
There are more than 1,100 childcare centers in Minnesota that are supported in part by the government to help keep it open, and about $185 million of that coming from the federal government.
But HHS insisting this freeze is necessary, crediting that video that they say shows blatant and unrepentant rampant fraud in Minnesota and across the country.
CBS News analyzed the day care centers mentioned by Shirley, saying they found that all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and state regulators visited the active locations within the last six months.