Committee moves to make temporary fraud withholding permanent and allow interagency notification

Summary

House File 36‑21, as amended, makes withholding of suspected fraudulent payments permanent, lowers the standard from 'preponderance' to 'credible allegation', expands withholding to individuals and businesses, and authorizes interagency notification; the committee passed the bill and referred it to judiciary.

Chair Cleburne introduced House File 36‑21 with an A1 amendment brought by Minnesotans for Open Government; the amendment was adopted and the chair described the bill as converting temporary withholding authorities into permanent tools to stop suspected fraud. The bill lowers the evidentiary standard to a "credible allegation," expands withholding definitions to include individuals and businesses, and permits agencies to notify one another if a potential fraudster collects payments from multiple agencies.

Vice Chair Davis and others supported a stronger approach to fraud, citing recent investigations and ongoing concerns about claimants who continue to receive payments. With no public testifiers signed up, members debated technical questions about the target programs and implementation but offered bipartisan support for tougher safeguards.

By voice vote the committee approved HF36‑21 as amended and moved it to the Judiciary Committee for further consideration.