DFL lawmakers say fraud-fighting measures are advancing across budget bills, criticize special committee as politicized

State representatives leading Minnesota’s anti-fraud work told reporters that many of the policy changes aimed at reducing fraud are being advanced inside individual budget bills, and criticized a dedicated fraud-prevention committee for becoming politicized and failing to move substantive proposals.

“Again, we agree fraud is bad and let's take action on it in a well informed and concrete way,” State Representative Dave Pinto, DFL lead on the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, said at the press event. Pinto added that most anti-fraud language is being incorporated into appropriations and policy bills across committees rather than through the stand-alone committee.

Representative Emma Greenman, DFL of south Minneapolis, said Republican actions around the committee undercut its stated purpose. “What this says is this is a political project from the beginning,” Greenman said, criticizing a pre-hearing letter and public tactics she described as aimed at political opponents rather than at describing fraud patterns and protecting vulnerable Minnesotans.

Why it matters: lawmakers said the practical work to detect and prevent fraud is progressing through specific budget and policy bills in Human…