“We have trusted the Department of Human Services to oversee $15 billion in taxpayer dollars, and they have been consistently negligent. In just the past 24 hours, rampant day care fraud has been exposed, and we discovered DHS has allowed our seniors to be in harm’s way. Meanwhile, we have a day care shortage in most parts of the state because competent child care providers can’t deal with DHS’s petty investigations.

There is rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in state human services programs. The bureaucrats repeatedly claim we’re overstating the problem. It’s time to face the music. We need to create a separate investigative state agency to hold DHS and other state agencies accountable. In the meantime, I will be holding another oversight hearing in the near future.”

Sen. Abeler (R-Anoka) is the Chair of the Senate Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee.