Bill would add tools to fight fraud in state human services programs

Two major players in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud trial were found guilty Wednesday.

The fraud involved the Department of Agriculture and its insufficient oversight that failed to catch years of swindling money meant to feed low-income children.

That scandal also highlighted other recent failures to prevent widespread fraud in other state programs, including Medicaid, and was one of the incentives to create the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee.

Adding to the mix of ways the Legislature can reduce fraud in government programs, Rep. Brion Curran (DFL-White Bear Lake) sponsors a bill that would add several anti-fraud measures to tighten up oversight of programs administered by the Department of Human Services.

Curran said HF2260 would incorporate federal anti-kickback language into state statutes, including those directing the state’s Medical Assistance program and the Child Care Assistance program, as a way to combat fraud, waste and abuse.

The House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee approved the bill, as amended, Thursday and sent it to the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

[MORE: Department of Human Services summary of bill]

The bill would prohibit kickbacks and other prohibited payments and aiding or abetting the submission of a willfully false claim.

Persons convicted of these acts could be sentenced according to the sentencing guidelines for theft crimes and could also be prosecuted under the state False Claims Act.

“We think this is a really important program-integrity provision and it would give DHS as well as our law enforcement partners more tools when investigating and prosecuting fraud and misuse in human services programs,” said Ari Didion, legislative director at the department’s Office of Inspector General.

Portions of the bill include changes to the management and operations in the department proposed by Gov. Tim Walz in the anti-fraud legislative package outlined in a January 2025 executive order.

Kristy Graume, director of state government relations at the Department of Human Services, highlighted a department-requested provision of the bill. It would include human services judges in the definition of “judicial officials” who are protected under a 2024 law that created protections, remedies and penalties around the unauthorized dissemination of personal data for judicial officials.

She described a human services judge who received “really violent threats” requiring a relocation of the judge’s family outside of their home for several days.