GOP State Sen. Steve Drazkowski said that Gov. Tim Walz tried to scuttle a bipartisan bill that would establish an independent office of the inspector general (OIG) to investigate fraud in Minnesota.
That shocking claim was made during a Senate Republican press conference on Thursday.
Back in the 2025 legislative session, DFL State Sen. Heather Gustafson and GOP State Sen. Michael Kreun worked together on a bill to establish an independent, statewide OIG that would be tasked with rooting out fraud in Minnesota state government.
In 2025, the Minnesota Senate passed that bill by a 60-7 vote. However, the bill was never brought up for a vote in the Minnesota House of Representatives, which is evenly split with 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats.
Republicans have said the House DFL refused to bring the bipartisan OIG bill up for a vote. That bipartisan OIG bill is poised to be a major focus of this year’s legislative session, and the bill was already heard in the House State Government Committee Thursday morning.
During that hearing, DFL State Rep. Matt Norris tried to delete the contents of the bill and replace it with his own OIG proposal. However, that effort was blocked by Republicans.
On Thursday afternoon, Kreun said Norris’ effort would have removed the portion of the bill that gives the OIG its own law enforcement division. Kreun said that section is “a critical part of this bill that our [bipartisan] working group spent a lot of time on last year.”
“It’s what puts the teeth into that office,” Kreun said of the law enforcement division in the proposed OIG. Kreun said that he is open to minor changes to his and Gustafson’s OIG bill, but “we’re not gonna move backwards.”
Kreun called on members of the House DFL to work in a bipartisan manner.
Regarding Norris’ effort to change the bill, Kreun said, “I do believe that there was probably some involvement by the governor’s office.”
Shortly thereafter, Drazkowski took to the podium at the Republican press conference and spoke about the OIG bill.
“Sen. Gustafson did a great job I think as an author in the Senate,” Drazkowski said.
“As a matter of fact, she resisted efforts from the governor to scuttle the bill,” Drazkowski said. “I was in State Government Finance Committee and Sen. Gustafson shows me her phone: ‘Tim Walz’ it says on it.”
“And so she goes and takes a call, and she comes back and I say, ‘Well, Heather, what’d the governor want?'”
“He wants me to withdraw my bill,” Drazkowski said, quoting Gustafson.
“And she did not withdraw her bill,” Drazkowski said. “She stood in there in the bipartisan manner that we laid out in that working group, and stood in and we all stood there together, throughout the time. We’re not seeing that in the House. Obviously, [Walz] is having that influence in the House, and that’s the perspective that I can provide.”
Alpha News reached out to Walz, Gustafson, Drazkowski, and Norris for this story. However, neither Walz nor Norris immediately responded to media inquiries.
Drazkowski told Alpha News that his interaction with Gustafson took place at a meeting of the State Government Finance Committee during the 2025 legislative session. However, he said could not remember the exact committee meeting where the interaction happened.
In a statement to Alpha News, Gustafson said, “Sen. Drazkowski’s statement that I did a great job on the OIG bill is correct, however, his recollection of my conversation with Governor Walz is inaccurate.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
