Today Senate Republicans rolled out a comprehensive plan to hold government accountable to stop waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayers’ dollars. The plan is part of the group’s Minnesotans First agenda for the 2025 legislative session.
“We know that stopping fraud is not just a legislative priority, recent polling shows that it’s a top issue for Minnesotans too,” Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) said. That’s why we are making it a priority to hold government accountable for protecting taxpayers’ money. “Minnesotans work hard, and they are generous people, but with at least half a billion dollars in fraud over the last six years, they are tired of being in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.”
The eight bills presented cover everything from empowering the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor to creating a state Office of Inspector General, a state grants administrator, a central grant system, increased oversight of grant recipients, and additional accountability, training requirements, and whistleblower protections for state employees.
“Fraud is not a small problem in Minnesota. And we shouldn’t just nibble around the edges,” Sen. Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) said. “The options so far from the administration responsible for most of this fraud are simply not enough. We don’t need to turn the dial, we need to pull the fire alarm. Our comprehensive plan to hold government accountable is a wholesale culture shift in how the state views every cent it takes from taxpayers, and every cent it spends.”
Oversight
The eight bills presented by their authors tackle fraud from the top down. It begins with better oversight of state employees and funding recipients. Sen. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) presented a bill to strengthen penalties for state employees who refuse or fail to report suspected waste, fraud, or abuse as state law requires. It also requires a temporary halt in payments by an employee anytime that fraud is suspected. Another element of the legislation will freeze an agency’s base budget for operations (salaries, expenses, benefits) for 2 years when the commissioner refuses or fails to promptly report fraud. While current law requires employees to report fraud to the OLA, the Feeding Our Future scandal was cited by the OLA as an instance where state employees did not report it. The bill aims to model the current federal “do not pay” list that creates a shared database of individuals and entities ineligible to receive government payments.
To balance out increased penalties, Sen. Andrew Mathews (R-Princeton) shared his bill to increase whistleblower protection laws for state employees who report suspected waste, fraud, or abuse, and expand who whistleblowers can report to. There are concerns, especially in the Department of Human Services, about retaliation against those trying to fight fraud from the inside, and current law has not been sufficient to protect them.
Finally, Sen. Mark Koran (R- North Branch) discussed proposed legislation for a state OIG office for oversight, compliance, training, and data retention policies as an integrative solution to make fraud prevention a priority across every part of state government.
Transparency
Next, the rollout focused on transparency in state government. The first bill, by Sen. Michael Kreun (R-Blaine), has already had a hearing to restore transparency in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office. Before 2022, data on closed investigations applying to non-individuals was considered public and routinely produced to the public for over 40 years by multiple Attorneys General. A court ruling upheld the AG’s position to withhold the data that had previously been routinely produced, thereby severely limiting the public’s access to information on fraud cases being investigated, prosecuted, or settled.
Sen. Jordan Rasmusson (R-Fergus Falls) is the chief author of a bill that encourages House and Senate Committees to hold hearings where the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) reviews agency compliance with its recommendations to better address fraud, waste, and abuse. Too often, the OLA’s recommendations are ignored, with little to no meaningful action taken by commissioners or their staff to implement the necessary changes.
Grant Reform
Finally, since much of the fraud in Minnesota has occurred through grants distributed by state agencies to nonprofits, there are three proposals to overhaul how this funding is managed.
Sen. Bruce Anderson (R-Buffalo) has a bill to create the position of Grant Administrator, responsible for managing the state’s grants. It also instructs the state to find or create a single grants database as a central hub for data. This would create a clearinghouse to determine if fraudulent actors are stealing or abusing funds in more than one agency.
Sen. Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) shared her bill to address a 2023 OLA report that found “pervasive noncompliance” in grant management practices across state agencies. Her bill includes stricter financial audits for organizations that rely on state dollars, rules to prevent conflict of interest, and background checks to keep criminals out of grant-funded nonprofits.
To conclude, Sen. Coleman presented a bill to add oversight and compliance checks on grants, including surprise site visits, requirements for financial reconciliation and proper financial management of funds, and granting agencies the authority to withhold funding from groups that fail to comply.
Bill List
Senate Republicans comprehensive plan to hold government accountable to stop the waste, fraud, and abuse includes the following bills:
Oversight
- Sen. Drazkowski – SF TBD: Increase penalties on state employees who don’t follow the law to report suspected waste, fraud, or abuse
- Sen. Mathews – SF 475: Whistleblower protection laws for state employees who report suspected waste, fraud, or abuse (Heard in State and Local Government Committee on Feb. 11, 2025)
- Sen. Koran – SF TBD: State OIG office
Transparency
- Sen. Kreun – SF 730: Transparency in the AG’s office (Heard in Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Jan. 29, 2025)
- Sen. Rasmusson – SF 263: OLA review on agency compliance based on OLA recommendations to relevant House and Senate committees (Heard in State Government Committee Feb. 11, 2025)
Grant reforms
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- Sen. Nelson – SF 981: OLA recommendations on grant reform including conflict of interest rules, background checks, and salary transparency
- Sen. Coleman – SF 1123: Increased oversight of grants, reporting and compliance requirements
- Sen. Anderson – SF 538: Grant Administrator and centralized grant database