Amid widespread fraud in Minnesota, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced the Welfare Abuse and Laundering Zillions Act — otherwise known as the WALZ Act.
“What we’re seeing in Minnesota is a jaw-dropping failure of leadership, nearly $9 billion lost to fraud under Gov. Tim Walz’s watch. This is what happens when soft-on-crime Democrat policies run unchecked: zero accountability, zero oversight, and taxpayers left holding the bag,” the Iowa Republican said in a press release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said during a press conference earlier this month that “half or more” of the $18 billion spent on 14 Medicaid programs in Minnesota since 2018 could be fraudulent.
Thompson and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have indicted more than 90 people in connection to schemes to defraud housing-assistance, autism-treatment, and free-food programs.
“The WALZ Act is named for a reason, to ensure this level of negligence can never be repeated anywhere else in America. Our bill puts hard safeguards in place to protect taxpayer dollars, shut the door on scam artists, and bring real accountability back to government programs,” added Miller-Meeks.
Her bill would trigger automatic state and federal investigations when there are unexplained spikes in claims in human services programs.
Among other things, Miller-Meeks also said her bill would “establish a national standard for transparency and anti‑fraud protections that states must meet to receive federal funding,” and “implement robust verification standards and real‑time financial audits on programs that disburse federal and state funds.”
Miller-Meeks stressed that taxpayers deserve government systems built on accountability and transparency, not waste and abuse.
“This legislation isn’t just a reaction to fraud,” she said. “It’s a proactive solution to restore trust in government programs and protect working families from having their hard-earned tax dollars stolen.”
