Latest news with #KristinRobbins
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Minnesota House fraud committee asks legislators to stop giving money directly to nonprofits
Chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, spoke at a Capitol press conference on March 24, 2025. Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer. A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers from the House Ways and Means Committee and a fraud prevention committee asked their fellow legislators to refrain from earmarking funds directly to nonprofits without a competitive grant process this year. Legislators from both parties for years have been giving taxpayer funds directly to nonprofits to complete government work, such as preventing violence or providing food to needy families. State agencies typically award a grant to a nonprofit after performing background checks and analyzing numerous proposals, ultimately giving it to the applicant that best meets their criteria. But Minnesota lawmakers can also go around that competitive process and directly name a nonprofit, granting funds in a budget bill through what are known as legislatively named grants. Those grants have been fraught with problems over the years. The letter to budget-writing lawmakers requests they stop granting money to organizations through legislatively named grants as they draft budget bills for their respective committees in the weeks ahead. The Legislature must pass a two-year budget by June 30, though the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn May 19. 'When you appropriate funds to private entities, we urge you to strongly consider having agencies use a competitive process to select those entities, rather than directly naming them in law,' lawmakers wrote. Legislators are able to propose whatever bills they like, so there's little stopping them from continuing to name nonprofits in bills and granting them funds — other than asking them nicely like in the Wednesday letter. In 2023, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-led Legislature approved over $1.1 billion in legislatively named grants to nonprofits, with some receiving more money from lawmakers than they normally get in other grants and donations in an entire year. According to a 2023 audit, Minnesota struggles to oversee money it sends out the door. The Office of the Legislative Auditor found 'pervasive noncompliance' with grant management policies, 'signaling issues with accountability and oversight' of the $500 million the state sends out in a typical year. Both competitive and legislatively named grants are supposed to go through the same type of oversight by state agencies, but the Office of the Legislative Auditor has found that agencies have failed to provide the same oversight of legislatively named grants that they do for competitive grants. The OLA has recommended lawmakers stop using legislatively named grants since 2007, or the year the first iPhone was released. Proponents of legislatively named grants say the practice allows smaller, less-established nonprofits an opportunity to receive state funding, as they may be disregarded in a competitive process. A competitive process can also be unnecessary if, for example, a nonprofit is the only organization in an area of Minnesota that provides a particular service, proponents say. 'Direct appropriations may be the best fit for some circumstances, such as where there is only one private entity that can meet the identified need,' the lawmakers wrote. 'But this should be the rare exception, rather than a general process. Additionally, the entity should be specified by name rather than using a session-law description for which only one entity could qualify.' Last year, Democratic lawmakers passed a bill requiring companies like Uber and Lyft to contract with a nonprofit advocacy organization to provide driver services. The bill appeared tailored to describe the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association. The organization has been accused of fraud and deceptive trade practices by Uber and Lyft drivers.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minnesota House passes bill expanding whistleblower protections for state workers reporting fraud
Minnesota Capitol. Photo courtesy of House Public Information Services. The Minnesota House on Monday passed a bill that expands whistleblower protections for state employees who report fraud, waste or abuse of public dollars in hopes that workers will be more willing to come forward to report malfeasance. The bill (HF23), which passed Monday 133-0, is part of Republicans' anti-fraud package — a series of bills to address the theft of public dollars that has beset a number of Minnesota safety net programs in recent years. Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove and chair of the House's new fraud committee, said state workers have been fearful of retaliation if they report suspicions of fraud in their agency. 'The people who work in state government are working really hard, and they see these problems and they want to fix it. They want to be partners in solving some of the waste, fraud and abuse that's out there,' Robbins said Monday. Minnesota already had extensive whistleblower protections, but the bill creates new definitions for fraud and expands the law to all state workers. Current law provides protections for unclassified workers, but the bill passed Monday expands it to all state employees, which includes managers. The bill will need Senate approval and the signature of Gov. Tim Walz to become law. The House on Monday also took up another anti-fraud bill (HF3) requiring the Office of the Legislative Auditor to update lawmakers on which of their recommendations to the executive branch have been implemented. The OLA frequently recommends a state agency adopt various practices to prevent fraudulent activity or other issues identified in an audit. The bill would require that lawmakers be made aware which of these OLA recommendations an agency has and has not adopted. All House Democrats voted against the bill, arguing that it was unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The bill would have allocated about $497,000 to the OLA and the state budget office for implementation. The bill failed to win the 68 votes needed for passage.
Axios
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Why Minnesota Republicans are bringing up bills that won't pass
A Monday vote at the Minnesota Legislature on trans youth playing girls' sports is the latest example of House Republicans using their temporary edge to hold votes on bills they know probably won't pass. State of play: For the first weeks of this session, Republicans have used their 67-66 majority to bring forward proposals targeting a public records exemption used by the Attorney General, the governor's executive powers and funding for the Blue Line extension. The catch: You need 68 votes to pass a bill and all three measures failed on party-line votes. What they're saying: Republicans say they're using their power to advance and debate priority bills that were sidelined when Democrats had full control. "We're showing Minnesotans what we believe versus what the Democrats believe," Rep. Elliott Engen (R-White Bear Township) said of the agenda. Friction point: Democrats have criticized Republicans for wasting time with political messaging bills instead of focusing on bipartisan proposals that will improve lives and lower the cost of living. Flashback: The last time Minnesota had divided government, House Democrats used their majority to advance a number of priority bills that they knew had no chance of passing what was then a GOP-controlled Senate. Leaders later said that work — including the vetting and tweaking of legislation through the committee process — primed them to act quickly when they won a trifecta in 2022. What's next: A March 11 special election for a vacant House seat in Roseville could restore the chamber to a 67-67 tie. After that, bills will need bipartisan support to get out of committee and to the floor, under the early February power-sharing deal that brought an end to a three-week stalemate that delayed the start of the session. The bottom line: Any of these failed bills could be revived as part of a broader budget deal later this spring. Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove) told reporters recently that some Democrats have privately expressed an openness to vote aye on some of the measures down the road.
CBS News
28-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Minnesota House approves first bills of session, after GOP-backed bills didn't clear threshold to move forward
After a few Republican priority bills failed to clear the vote threshold needed to pass the House in recent weeks, the chamber advanced two GOP-backed proposals with overwhelming bipartisan support on Thursday, the first pieces of legislation to advance out of the chamber this year following a weeks-long delay to session's start. The measures that were approved include creating an incentive program for state agencies to save money and prohibiting organizations that get state funding from spending those dollars on political causes. But another measure that would curtail the governor's peacetime emergency powers failed to get the 68 votes needed to move forward. Even though Republicans have a one-seat edge right now, neither party has an outright majority due to a vacant seat in the Roseville-area for which there is a special election March 11. The current make-up is there are 67 Republican members to Democrats' 66; the outcome of the election in a few weeks could return the chamber to a tie if the DFL candidate prevails or give Republicans the magic number to pass their priorities without any bipartisan buy-in. Two other bills debated on the floor this year also didn't move forward, failing to get the 68 votes required. Still—while they have the extra vote and are leading committees under the terms of the deal agreed to by both parties — GOP members say it's important to continue to move their bills through committee and call them for floor votes anyway. They believe it's a chance for their ideas to get the attention they deserve after they say Democrats largely rebuffed their proposals the last several years when they controlled the chamber. "I think it keeps these really important bills that Minnesotans care about that will make Minnesotans' lives more affordable on the table and then they can come into play later in session," said Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, whose emergency powers bill and a measure to pause future light rail transit projects earlier this week failed to advance. "So this is not wasted time. This is not posturing. This is getting the work done that we were sent here to do." If the House does return to a tie in a few weeks, no bill will even make it to the floor for a vote without guaranteed bipartisan support since the panel deciding which bills are eligible will be evenly split between both parties. The seat at stake is in a metro district that favors Democrats, but Republicans say they are working hard to elect their candidate to secure the 68 vote-proof majority that would allow them to further their agenda. The DFL caucus, meanwhile, projects confidence that the chamber will once again return to the 67 to 67 split that voters delivered in November. A judge determined the Democrat who won in that district initially did not meet the residency rules required to legitimately serve the district, prompting the vacancy. "In a few short weeks, the Minnesota House will return to a 67-67 tie, and we will have to work together to get anything done. Democrats were pleased to join Republicans in passing two minor bills off the House floor today," said former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman in a statement. "Instead of looking in the rearview mirror and rehashing old political battles like our state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to look forward and spend more time working together."
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Minnesota Republicans push fraud to center stage at state Capitol
With Minnesota House Republicans in the majority — for now at least — they're moving forward with a slate of legislation and other moves they say will better address waste, fraud and abuse in state government. How far they go will depend on what ideas Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers will support. And while at least one proposal shows signs of traction, DFLers aren't eager to let the GOP use the opportunity to blame their leadership for major government fraud. House Republicans say there's been more than half a billion dollars of known fraud in Minnesota since 2018, a figure that includes more than $250 million in pandemic-era federal meal aid the state lost to an alleged scheme that federal prosecutors say centered around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. It's one of the main issues the GOP campaigned on in the 2024 election, and it gained them a tied House in the November elections after two years of DFL-controlled state government. The GOP currently has a slim majority and it may be temporary as a March 11 special election in a heavily DFL Roseville-area district may return the 67-67 split. Control of committees will be split again once a tie returns, but as part of a deal that got DFLers to return to the Capitol after a weeks-long session boycott, Republicans will keep control of a newly created panel dedicated to addressing fraud in state government for two years. In the last two weeks, the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee has held hearings that Republicans hope will highlight the issues they say led to major fraud at the state departments of Education and Human Services. 'The mission of this committee is to ensure that taxpayer money is not going to the greedy, but is going to serve the needy,' said fraud committee Chair Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, who said it isn't a partisan issue. 'The Legislature appropriates money and we also have a duty to exercise oversight of executive branch agencies tasked with spending it.' At its first hearing on Feb. 10, GOP members of the committee called the Office of the Legislative Auditor to explain its past review that found 'pervasive noncompliance' in the state's grant management policies between 2018 and 2022, when agencies distributed more than half a billion dollars a year to nonprofits. That audit, first published in 2023, found the Education Department and many other state agencies administering hundreds of millions of dollars in grants didn't follow state rules, and that government officials had little authority to enforce compliance. It's a 2-year-old report, but GOP members of the committee said it highlights ongoing issues with the way the state issues grants. DFLers pointed out that they had passed measures to address some of those problems and that there would be an update on the progress on some of those in an upcoming report from the Office of Grants Management, an office that had its staffing boosted by the Legislature in 2023. 'They went from four people to 12 in response to this audit … because I think that there was a recognition by both the auditor and the legislators that wasn't enough,' Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, told the committee. In response to fraud, Democrats in 2023 boosted the number of grants management employees, created a new inspector general position at the Department of Education, and gave department commissioners the ability to cut off grants not in the state's best interest, according to the Senate DFL. The moves came after the Feeding Our Future scandal became widely publicized. Democrats also point to the 70 people who were indicted by the federal government in connection to the case as a sign that fraud is taken seriously in the state. More than 30 have pleaded guilty so far, and the alleged ringleader is currently on trial. DFL Gov. Tim Walz has taken action, too. In January, he signed an executive order to create a fraud investigation unit at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The new House fraud committee has held two hearings so far and the next is scheduled for Monday, when Department of Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi is set to testify. So far, its meetings have been informational. Robbins has said the committee could consider bills, including some fraud-related measures that have already been advancing in the GOP-controlled House. The committee's powers are limited. Republicans control a 5-3 majority, but it won't be enough for them to file a subpoena on their own. That requires a two-thirds majority on any committee, so they'll need DFL support to launch any serious investigation of a government agency. Even if Republicans can get any of their fraud measures to the House floor, they face another hurdle: Republicans have 67 seats — short of the 68 needed to pass any bills. No matter what, they need one Democrat to join them. The DFL also has a one-seat majority in the Senate. In that chamber, the only anti-fraud measure that has gained any serious traction so far is a measure to create an Office of Inspector General that would give oversight at multiple state offices. What bills are Republicans hoping to pass in order to curb fraud? One establishes a centralized inspector general office for state government that unifies all six governor-appointed inspectors general across state agencies. It requires the state to halt payments when fraud is suspected and create a fraud reporting hotline. The House version advanced through a committee last week. A similar bill is backed by Senate Democrats. Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, is carrying the bill, which recently advanced through the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. GOP Sen. Michael Kreun of Blaine is also a sponsor. Senate Republicans have a separate bill, too, though their version is not likely to get far because they are in the minority. Another GOP proposal would create stricter reporting requirements for fraud in state agencies. Employees are currently encouraged to report suspected fraud to the legislative auditor, but a review by that office last summer found that didn't happen. Republicans say that needs to be strengthened, and their bill would require immediate reporting to law enforcement, and chairs and ranking minority members of relevant legislative committees. A third House fraud bill requires the Office of the Legislative Auditor to submit an annual report to the Legislature detailing agency progress on anti-fraud measures. In addition to sponsoring bills and holding hearings with their new fraud committee, House Republicans also have attempted to enlist the aid of the Trump administration. On Feb. 10, Robbins, House Speaker Lisa Demuth and Majority Leader Harry Niska sent a letter to new Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate fraud in Minnesota. Politics | Minnesota House Republicans seek to ban transgender students from sports, locker rooms, restrooms Politics | Ellison: Trump order on transgender athletes violates Minnesota law Politics | Republican-backed bill fails in first floor vote in Minnesota House Politics | DFL lawmakers, Ellison back legislation to purchase, then forgive, Minnesotans' medical debt Politics | Senate GOP files new ethics complaints against Nicole Mitchell, state senator facing felony burglary charges
