House committee advances bill to create statewide Office of Inspector General amid questions over federal funding and employee protections

The House Human Services Finance and Policy Committee on Feb. 24 considered House File 1, a bill authored by Representative Patty Anderson that would establish a statewide Office of Inspector General (OIG) in the legislative branch to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in state programs. The committee adopted a DE2 amendment and, after debate and a roll-call, re‑referred the bill to the Committee on Education Finance (9 ayes, 8 nays).

Representative Patty Anderson, the bill's author, told the committee: “This is the bill that creates the Office of Inspector General,” and said the proposal is intended to “mimic the office of the Legislative Auditor” while adding an investigative capacity focused on grant and program integrity. Anderson said the draft has been revised multiple times in conversations with all four caucuses and the Senate and that the aim is to stop large-scale fraud and direct program dollars to eligible Minnesotans.

The bill prompted sustained questions about three main issues: (1) whether moving investigative functions into a legislative OIG would jeopardize federal funding tied to program integrity work, especially Medicaid; (2) whether positions in the new OIG should remain in the classified civil service or be unclassified (and thereby lose certain collective-bargaining protections); and (3) operational details such as data sharing, the scope and frequency of unannounced site visits, and how embedded OIG staff would interact with existing agency staff.

Devin Bruce, director of legislative and political affairs…