Was Walz just looking the other way? Comer Report foreshadows the next shoe to drop in Vance probe.

Chairman James Comer’s House Oversight Committee June 2026 staff report, “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion,” reveals a governance philosophy that protected certain programs and their spending even when presented with bright red flags from investigators and whistleblowers. But it may go beyond that—and that’s where Vice President J.D. Vance takes over with his work as fraud czar.

Comer’s report demonstrates negligence in the Walz administration’s efforts to combat fraud. But did administration officials proactively enable fraud or hamper investigations to stop it? “Minnesota state officials are not above the law,” Vice President Vance said in a social media post, concluding, “if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimidated whistleblowers, they must face justice.”

Chairman Comer’s 205-page report details how the Walz administration, aware of the fraud since 2019, failed to restrict payments or root out crooks. Walz seemed to prioritize getting money out the door and measured success by volume rather than by how much good the money did. This invited fraudsters in, and when red flags were raised and whistles were blown, the whistleblowers and flag-raisers were threatened to keep the mess quiet. According to the Comer Report, many of the suspicious activity reports were triggered by immigrant business owners or businesses simply engaging in programs whose goals were deemed more important than what did (or did not) get done to achieve them.

This enabled massive losses, including the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal as well as “smaller” losses such as the Housing Stabilization Services program, which ballooned from $2.5 million in 2020 to over $100 million in 2024. These and other budget explosions seemed to escape the regulators in the Walz administration who were supposed to monitor such programs.

But the issue went beyond mere negligence. It wasn’t simply a lack of controls to spot obviously suspicious activity or turning a blind eye to eye-popping spending with no receipts.

The Comer Report highlights testimony suggesting that whistleblowers and investigators were warned by higher-ups in the administration to stop finding fraud in certain areas. Over 30 state employees who raised concerns said they faced retaliation, including intimidation, threats, and professional repercussions. Instead of addressing the concerns, according to the Comer Report, the administration suppressed dissent and the money kept flowing.

American Experiment has also detailed additional ways the design of the enrollment process itself may have provided a roadmap to hide fraud. When illegal noncitizens admitted to fraudulently obtaining Medicaid, they were instructed to simply “correct” the application for MinnesotaCare by claiming “not legal” status. “When an enrollee who has previously indicated that they are a U.S. citizen or lawfully present non-citizen corrects their information to indicate that they are not considered lawfully present, the new attested information is not subject to verification.” This giant fraud loophole was presented by the administration to individuals the state already acknowledged had committed Medicaid fraud.

If they applied without providing a Social Security number or any other financial data, they were immediately loaded onto MinnesotaCare as long as they claimed to make no income. “An individual who reports having no income is not required to provide verification or an explanation, unless electronic sources or other information the agency has indicates there is inconsistent information.” If they did provide additional supporting documentation, it triggered a review and a higher standard of accountability. Clearly, that is a signal to enrollees to provide nothing but a simple attestation, making it impossible to audit the application for fraud. This is not just looking the other way.

The next step—Vice President J.D. Vance’s referral to the DOJ’s Fraud Division for criminal investigation—clearly signals accountability for the fraudsters who financially benefited, as well as the potential for those enabling the fraud to face consequences. Nobody wants to see weaponization of the government against people doing their jobs, so this needs to be done with the utmost of care, but with the understanding that the victims of these crimes are the most vulnerable among us.

Even if this succeeds in prosecuting bad actors, Minnesota needs a major correction to regain trust.Minnesota needs to face the music and clean up the mess. This will include:

• Rigorous financial controls
• Outcome-based metrics
• Whistleblower protection

To enable the next legislature and governor to address this issue properly, they will have to work with the Trump administration on a new way forward. In order to do that, Minnesotans need to know that they are not being laughed at by the fraudsters who got rich stealing from hungry kids and poor people on Medicaid.