Today, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) sent letters to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison amid reports of improper payments and misuse of taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).
In the letters, Chairman Walberg writes: “Based on recent public reporting, your administration’s oversight of child care centers also appears insufficient. Although Minnesota officials have acknowledged that licensing staff conducted site visits to facilities identified in publicly circulated videos to assess compliance concerns, these checks do not appear to be sufficiently mitigating fraud. Additional reporting indicates that the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Office of Inspector General is currently overseeing over 60 investigations involving child care providers, including investigations related to improper payments, record-keeping deficiencies, and compliance failures…”
Chairman Walberg continues: “Weaknesses in Minnesota’s oversight and payment verification processes may be longstanding. Whistleblower accounts and prior enforcement actions suggest that instances of improper billing, falsified attendance records, and noncompliance with licensing requirements have been identified over multiple years. These concerns underscore the importance of evaluating whether existing safeguards are sufficient to prevent improper payments and detect misconduct in a timely manner.”
The Chairman concludes:“The Committee seeks information regarding Minnesota’s administration and oversight of child care providers to better understand how provider eligibility, attendance verification, and payment integrity are monitored and enforced…The Committee also seeks to understand what steps, if any, Minnesota has taken to address identified vulnerabilities and to strengthen program integrity in response to recent investigations and reporting.”
