HHS demands accounting from Minnesota to prove feds’ money didn’t ‘fuel illegal and mass migration’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the allegedly fraudulent nonprofit Feeding Our Future received demand letters from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a probe of whether federal money was used to “fuel illegal and mass migration” in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, an HHS official told the New York Post.The letters from Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams seek a “comprehensive list” of state entities funded by $8.6 billion in federal dollars and more than 1,000 grants from fiscal year 2019 to 2025, due Dec. 26. Minnesota got more than $690 million for safety net programs in President Biden’s final fiscal year, the Post said. 
The ACF programs under review include Parents in Community Action, Community Services Block Grant, Social Services Block Grant, the Title IV-E Foster Care, Refugee Cash Assistance and Refugee Medical Assistance, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Child Care and Development Fund.
“We’re trying to get data from them that will help give us confidence that there’s not fraud,” Adams told the newspaper, describing the probe as in the “exploratory phase.”
That data must include recipient names, addresses, social security numbers when collected, date of birth and “any state identification numbers used for program administration,” so that ACF can “assess the extent of any irregularities that may have occurred,” Adams’ letters reportedly say.
They highlight “public statements from hundreds of Minnesota Department of Human Services employees alleging that clear warnings of fraud were repeatedly disregarded, that whistleblowers faced retaliation, and that widespread misuse of federal funds may have persisted for years under your leadership.”
The Treasury Department and Republican-led House Oversight Committee are already investigating what Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer, the panel’s chair, calls “reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs.”

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