Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Plaguing Minnesota
By Senator Jason Rarick

As I’m sure many have already heard, the Feeding Our Future case has amounted to nearly $250 million in fraud so far. Recent reports have come out from the Legislative Auditor, once again showing a complete lack of oversight and accountability from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).

For those who don’t remember the details, Feeding Our Future was a nonprofit organization that popped up during Covid, and operated under the guise of feeding children in need. They were given federal funding to disperse to food vendors and food serving sites, which were meant to provide meals for children. The problem is that the count for “meals served” was highly exaggerated. Some sites didn’t even serve meals at all. Instead, the money that was meant to go to serving hungry children went to luxury cars, vacations, and more.

This isn’t the first instance of waste, fraud, and abuse that has taken place under the Walz administration. Many will remember the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) fraud that occurred in 2019, amounting to about $100 million under the Department of Human Services. More recently, the Frontline Worker Bonus Pay program was also plagued with fraud and incorrect payments, amounting to over $45 million. The newest case of fraud relates to autism service providers that have been committing potential Medicaid fraud. Unfortunately, the Feeding Our Future scandal is the latest in a long line of fraud, and it is also the largest case of fraud under the Walz administration so far.

I would argue that the single most frustrating part of this situation is that we can pinpoint this issue to a Commissioner and an agency, yet no one has been held accountable. The Office of the Legislative Auditor released findings on the fraud back in June and stated that “MDE’s actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud,” and noted that MDE “did not effectively exercise its authority to hold Feeding Our Future accountable to program requirements.” As such, the Commissioner of the agency should absolutely be held accountable, yet Governor Walz has done nothing to take that step. In fact, he recently praised the Department’s “diligent work” in stopping the fraud.

The bottom line is that taxpayers understand they are going to be taxed, and they know that their money will go to several projects and efforts. What they do not expect is for their money to be spent on questionable endeavors with little-to-no oversight, such as Feeding Our Future. They expect their money to be used wisely and responsibly. Not doing so breaks their trust. Many are frustrated that this level of fraud was able to continue with no oversight throughout the pandemic, and it’s incredibly frustrating that the Walz administration has overseen half a billion in waste, fraud, and abuse. This is clearly an ongoing problem.

Overall, Minnesotans expect oversight and transparency, and they expect us to follow through when issues are found. In the next legislative session, I am going to work with other legislators to make sure we are putting guardrails in place to ensure that if this happens again, the people responsible will absolutely be held accountable for their actions.