‘Jaw-dropping failure’: Congress gets asked to adopt WALZ Act targeting welfare fraud
Because of what could be the biggest financial scandal ever to erupt across America, with losses to taxpayers being speculated at billions of dollars, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now is getting what assuredly is unwanted recognition, even credit.
It’s because Congress is being introduced to the WALZ Act, the Welfare Abuse and Laundering Zillions Act, from U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.
The fraud in Minnesota centers around its huge Somali immigrant population, where it appears nearly every child there is autistic and therefore getting public aid. Other apparent frauds were as simple as setting up a child care facility and then claiming reimbursements for thousands and thousands of meals and or other services not provided.
A report at Fox News said Miller-Meeks’ plan would require the HHS Office of Inspector General to open investigations into any program that sees a 10% or greater increase in total payments over any six-month period within a fiscal year.
Such billing increases often are indicators of fraud in entitlement programs.
Fox confirmed, “Critics have made Walz the face of the scandal, given the fact that concerns over the fraud date back to 2019, when he took office and the inability of the state, which he serves as the top executive, to tackle the problem over the last five years.”
Walz himself has stated his accountability, and he then claimed he’ll be the one “that will fix it.”
“Tim Walz has been overseeing this rampant fraud for seven years.”
— Minnesota state representative and gubernatorial candidate @KRobbinsMN slammed Gov. Tim Walz over fraud in the state’s welfare programs@ShaunKraisman pic.twitter.com/yQ9UNrC1d3
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 23, 2025
CITIES REVOLT: A group of 98 Minnesota mayors warned Gov. Tim Walz and state lawmakers that fiscal mismanagement, fraud and unchecked spending are straining city budgets and forcing higher property taxes.
In a letter, the mayors cited the loss of an $18 billion surplus, a… pic.twitter.com/NW8pEx4zEG
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 23, 2025
BREAKING: The Trump admin has just sent a STRIKE TEAM into Minnesota to investigate new allegations of major unemployment fraud under Tim Walz
This needs to end up with Walz being JAILED.
There’s NO WAY he didn’t know about Medicaid OR UI fraud. pic.twitter.com/hMOc2q7Kzo
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 22, 2025
@GOPoversight is examining the extensive taxpayer fraud uncovered in Minnesota. We are following the money and I just requested all relevant Suspicious Activity Reports from @USTreasury.
Any coverup by Governor Walz’s administration must be exposed. @jasoninthehouse @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/BNQPqVjQxW
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) December 23, 2025
Miller-Meeks, in an interview with Fox, called it a “jaw-dropping failure of leadership.” And multiple federal agencies are investigating.
She warned, “This is what happens when soft-on-crime Democrats run the show: zero accountability, zero oversight and taxpayers left holding the bag. The WALZ Act is named for a reason, to ensure this level of negligence can never be repeated anywhere else in America. This bill puts hard safeguards in place to protect taxpayer dollars, shut the door on scam artists and bring real accountability back to government programs.”
Already, there have been claims that prominent members of that Somali community, such as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., could somehow be connected with events.
And a group of 98 Minnesota mayors has informed state leaders that the state’s policies have impacted their cities, and the disappearance of $18 billion in state surplus is alarming.
“Former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab, who briefly worked on the Feeding Our Future aspect of the fraud investigation, recently told Fox News Digital the fraud scheme was notable not only for its size, but for how easy it was to carry out,” the report said.
“These fraudsters were just saying that they were spending all this money on feeding kids… and they were just making up these PDFs, putting false names into Excel sheets,” he charged.
Earlier investigative reports have suggested many state officials were at least aware of the possibility of fraud going on, but were reluctant to ask questions for fear of the retaliation from the Somali community, which is a reliable voting bloc for Democrats.