Minnesota taxpayers are on the hook for $100 Million of child care fraud every year in the state's Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Last year, Fox 9 broke the news that this massive scam was not being properly investigated by DHS and resulted in suitcases of cash leaving our country, heading to Somalia. Since the story broke, the Minnesota Dept of Human Services moved the failed Inspector General, Carolyn Ham, to another department with full pay and benefits.

Action 4 Liberty reported that at 5 am in the morning during last year's Special Session on Memorial Day weekend, the legislature fully funded the fraudulent child care program. Politicians made minor reforms to combat the fraud, which will not stop the program. The CCAP program amounts to about $250 Million a year (federal, state and county funding), so nearly half the program is being abused. That's why we've called for an end to the program immediately. SIGN OUR PETITION.

So what do Republicans and Democrats have to say about the child care fraud as they prepare for the 2020 Legislative Session?

In an interview with Minnpost, when Governor Walz was asked about the status of DHS he stated "we did not have the processes in place to make sure that we’re following rules. Now some of those rules are complex and maybe archaic. But that’s no excuse for not doing them." Walz appeared open to the idea of splitting up DHS, but made no mention of what he'd do to stop the child care fraud in particular.

Senate Republicans rolled out their 2020 Vision yesterday. The stated priorities were "Working Together", Health Care, Clean Energy, Clean Water, "Taking Care of People" to name a few. Absent from their vision was combatting the massive child care fraud by eliminating the CCAP program. Senate Republicans mentioned holding DHS accountable by "including a proposal to move the Office of Inspector General outside the agency to give them more autonomy."

Why is this issue absent from the 2020 objective of both parties? Are they so naive as to think that the fraud has magically gone away? When Rep Jeremy Munson questioned the new DHS Commissioner in November about how many child care facilities they've visited to ensure there is no fraud, she did not have an answer.

Action 4 Liberty, along with thousands of petition signers from across the state, call for an end to the fraudulent child care assistance program. Any entity plagued with this amount of fraud cannot be fixed; it must be ended to ensure taxpayer money is not being abused.

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