ST. PAUL – House Speaker Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, is an author of three bills House Republicans have introduced to curb fraud, waste, and abuse in state programs.
From Feeding our Future to childcare assistance, frontline worker pay, and DHS and the Department of Education, Demuth said reports of fraud and waste have cost Minnesota taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars – and counting.
Demuth recently created a new Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee to tackle this issue. She said the common thread among the anti-fraud bills is to increase accountability and protect taxpayers at a time fraud and waste is rampant in Minnesota.
“We need real change to crack down on the fraud problem in our state,” Demuth said. “Minnesota taxpayers deserve to know their hard-earned dollars are being used wisely and that simply is not the case today. The package House Republicans have drafted is a comprehensive approach to providing new, independent oversight and stronger guardrails on the ground.”
The first three anti-fraud bills House Republicans drafted this session include:
- House File 1: Establishes a centralized Office of the Inspector General to lead the fight against fraud across state programs. The bill consolidates agency-based inspector general offices into a unified entity, requires agencies to halt payments when fraud is suspected, and mandates the creation of a fraud reporting hotline. Additionally, it provides funding to ensure the new OIG has the resources to be effective.
- House File 2: Strengthens fraud prevention by mandating stricter reporting requirements for state agencies and equipping them with additional tools to identify and prevent fraudulent activities.
- House File 3: Establishes “fraud notes,” a groundbreaking tool to assess the susceptibility of proposed legislation to fraud.
Demuth said House Republicans anticipate each of the three bills will receive their first House Committee hearings in the coming weeks.
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