Minnesota House Republicans are locked in a fierce partisan clash with Democrats as GOP lawmakers call for accountability from Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) and his administration for their years of failure to stop widespread welfare fraud that robbed hardworking taxpayers.It is estimated that the fraud in Minnesota connected to 14 “high-risk” Medicaid services could top $9 billion.Swanson further claimed senior-level Minnesota DHS officials 'harassed and abused our unit for committing the sin of trying to expose a huge amount of fraud.'The Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, led by Rep. Kristin Robbins (R), has held dozens of hearings, aiming to address these issues.Robbins has slammed Walz for declining the committee’s invitation to testify before House lawmakers, despite being in the Capitol building for his State of the State address the same evening as the committee’s Apr. 28 hearing.Robbins stated that his “decision-making over the last seven years … should be addressed,” pointing to a 2019 report from the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, published early in Walz’s administration, that revealed issues in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program.While Robbins’ committee has not heard testimony from Walz, it has questioned members of his administration. However, Robbins stated lawmakers “did not get satisfactory answers.”Republicans have introduced a wave of legislation to address the core issues at the heart of the state’s fraud crisis. However, Democrat lawmakers have put up resistance.Last year, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to establish an independent Office of Inspector General to investigate. Currently, the OIG is under the Minnesota DHS, an executive branch agency. After weeks of party-line disagreements, a bipartisan OIG compromise advanced in late Apr. 2026.The “Fraud Isn’t Free Act,” introduced in Feb. 2026, would have required state agencies to implement a corrective action plan in response to fraud in any program they administer. However, the proposal failed to pass a House committee.GOP lawmakers are also pushing the “Take It Back Act,” introduced in April, which is still in play. If passed, it would impose a 100% tax on an individual or organization convicted of fraud in a state or federal court.RELATED: Walz tries to take credit for raids on day cares in Minnesota — and Kash Patel humiliates him Kristin Robbins. Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty ImagesAs the state remains in the national spotlight for ignoring years of red flags, lawmakers are facing a tied House and are up against the clock, with the legislative session set to conclude in mid-May.On Apr. 28, FBI Minneapolis and its federal partners raided 22 child-care and autism centers. The criminal search warrants included the infamous “Quality Learing Center,” which misspelled “learning” on the business sign posted outside its establishment, as featured in journalist Nick Shirley’s reporting that uncovered rampant fraud tied to the state’s Somali community.That same day, Robbins’ fraud committee gathered for a hearing to discuss the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, during which Jay Swanson, a former Minnesota state trooper and a former manager of the Minnesota Department of Human Services child care provider investigation unit from 2014 to 2019, provided damning testimony.Swanson explained that he was involved in an investigation that led to a federal indictment of the owner of the Salama Child Care Center in 2017. The owner ultimately pled guilty, was sentenced to two years in prison, and was ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution, Swanson said.“The Salama Child Care Center was located at 1411 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. That address might ring a bell for some of you because of a YouTube video taken last December at the Quality Learing Center, which was being operated at the same address,” Swanson told lawmakers, referring to Shirley’s reporting.Swanson further claimed senior-level Minnesota DHS officials “harassed and abused our unit for committing the sin of trying to expose a huge amount of fraud in the CCAP program.” He noted that some of those individuals are still working at the state DHS.He told lawmakers that by mid-2017, the leadership at the Minnesota DHS was not focused on stopping CCAP fraud, but “the focus was on stopping the people that are investigating CCAP fraud.”Swanson stated that the state DHS unit he led was closed shortly after the special Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor report that flagged major weaknesses in the DHS’ fraud controls.“Rather than INCREASING criminal investigations of childcare fraud after an OLA report came out early in his Administration, @GovTimWalz and DHS closed the unit,” Robbins wrote in a post on X.