Tim Walz speaks onstage during the 2025 SXSW Conference and Festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 8, 2025, in Austin, Texas (Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
"He had years to stop this," Coleman said about Walz, who has faced increasing backlash for not taking swift action to investigate the fraud. He said the governor "only seems to care now that it’s getting national attention."
State Rep. Mark Koran, who represents Minnesota’s District 28 in eastern Minnesota, told Fox News Digital the "scale and scope" of the fraud is "almost incomprehensible" and that the buck stops with Walz.
"You have to look at who's been solely in charge of that process, which has been Governor Walz," Koran said. "The executive body controls every agency. And I think what to understand is how they are either extraordinarily incompetent or willfully complicit. There are no alternatives to it. And I think they're actually both."
EXPERT REVEALS KEY FACTOR THAT LED TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME
A man sleeps on a bench in the Cedars-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
While Republican legislators plan to take action during the next legislative session to implement more oversight of the troubled agencies, Koran told Fox News Digital that many don’t understand the "challenge" they face is that the legislature "doesn’t have any oversight in the execution and operations of these agencies."
"The governor has had sole responsibility since the day he's arrived," Koran said. "He entered into a fraudulent environment. He's enhanced the fraudulent environment, and he's not done a single thing to stop that fraud."
A spokesperson from Walz's office pushed back on the lawmakers, saying in a statement to Fox News Digital that Walz "views addressing fraud as a top priority."
"Over the last three years, he has made systematic changes to state government," the spokesperson said. "Detecting fraud is resource intensive and time-consuming — especially when it comes to the federal Medicaid programs that have a complex interplay between federal, state, and county governments and private insurance companies. It is an issue that many states, both red and blue, have faced."
"That is why we have created additional checks and balances throughout state government. We have hired investigators, auditors, and law enforcement. The Governor has brought in an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs at the Department of Human Services (DHS) and created a specialized fraud-fighting law enforcement unit at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He has installed new leadership at DHS with a single-minded focus on stopping fraudulent payments. Many of the changes have not been flashy or headline-grabbing, but rather just the hard work of building stronger safeguards throughout state government."
Fox News Digital's Amada Macias contributed to this report.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/he-had-years-to-stop-this-gop-lawmakers-blast-walz-over-massive-minnesota-fraud-scheme