'Is It Racist For A Government Official To Identify Fraud?': Brandon Gill Grills Tim Walz

[0:00] chair recognizes mr gill from texas thank you mr chairman and thank you uh to the witnesses for [0:06] taking the time to be here uh governor walter are you familiar with the early intensive [0:11] developmental and behavioral intervention benefit i am congressman got it it's uh [0:19] provide services for autism patients is that right that is correct got it and and when were [0:25] you when did you become governor uh in january of 2019 2019 okay so using 2018 as a baseline [0:32] do you know what that program paid uh in medicaid claims i do not congressman it was about 671 [0:40] thousand dollars do you know what that program paid in medicaid claims in 2024 i don't have the [0:45] number in front of me three three hundred forty two million dollars that's about a 500x increase over [0:52] six years were there was there 500 times the number of autism patients uh in in that time period i [0:58] couldn't specific speak specifically to it but i will say congressman that that doesn't sound [1:03] reasonable right you know there was a 500x increase in the number of autism i think in six years right [1:08] correct and that's why we ordered on-site visits starting back so we so we agree that that that [1:13] doesn't sound reasonable would you also agree that a single taxpayer dollar wasted on fraud is a dollar [1:19] too much to tolerate yes yep and and would you agree that as governor ultimately you're responsible [1:25] if tax dollars are defrauded yes i would agree would you also agree that calling somebody racist is a [1:31] serious accusation if they are racist i think i'm asking you if is that a serious accusation to make [1:41] about somebody i i i think it's just an observation of reality all right well let's go there is it [1:47] racist for for a government official to identify fraud no no is is it islamophobic to identify fraud [1:58] to identify fraud i no i don't believe it would be how how come multiple whistleblowers have said that [2:03] your administration told them not to say anything about widespread fraud across multiple agencies [2:09] because doing so would be considered racist or islamophobic i can't speak to it because it's not [2:14] anything i would say well that that's what your administration has said and has told whistleblowers and [2:20] as you just testified the buck stops with you that's what you stated in your uh in your statement [2:25] whenever you announced you weren't running again are you familiar with faye bernstein i i yes i'm [2:32] familiar with the name she's a democrat isn't she i wouldn't know that she stated publicly that [2:36] she's a democrat she's only voted democrat in in her life um she's also stated publicly um that she was [2:44] retaliated against and called racist and that her work responsibilities were diminished whenever she [2:48] was highlighting fraud within your administration are you familiar with that i couldn't speak to [2:53] why do you think she would allegation why do you think she would say that i can't speak for what [2:58] you have no idea i i do not you you would you would agree that the tone in your administration comes [3:04] from from you ultimately right the tone is that the tone of how you might deal with whistleblowers right [3:10] and we protect them it doesn't sound like you're you're protecting them we heard from representative [3:15] kristen robbins quote we have dozens of credible whistleblower reports saying the exact same thing that [3:20] people were told not to say anything because they'd be called racist or islamophobic or it would hurt [3:25] the state do you think it's racist or islamophobic to highlight and try to stop fraud it is not and [3:32] i certainly it's not but that was the message your administration was sending to multiple whistleblowers [3:37] i can't speak to that you can't speak to that you know you don't want to speak to that i think [3:42] i have i have over 40 000 retaliated against pardon me do you think whistleblowers should be [3:47] retaliated against absolutely not they have strong protections in minnesota and lots of paths and the [3:52] past that's not what we're hearing from whistleblowers faye bernstein who again has stated that [3:56] she is a democrat she's only ever voted democrat says that doesn't matter whether she's a smear [4:02] campaign for trying to make leadership aware of illegal contracting practices why do you think that [4:08] happened i can't speak to that congressman because we don't do it you just don't you don't know anything [4:13] i do know that it that we don't we have strong whistleblower protections and i can't speak that's [4:18] not what the whistleblowers are saying according to another report quote there's just a continuous [4:24] effort to stifle you to shut you up and it's impossible to overcome your administration's response [4:30] to whistleblowers has also been described as quote nearly unbearable retaliation we've heard claims that [4:36] quote they've been denied vacations promotions and that it's hurt people's careers to speak out against [4:42] fraud do you think that that had something to do with with the prevalence of fraud in your [4:46] administration i i can't speak to it but are you going to take responsibility for this i certainly [4:51] i supervise 40 000 employees state agencies you supervise a lot of a lot of employees and and [4:56] as you have said the buck stops with you and your administration has treated whistleblowers like [5:01] absolute dirt and that's a big reason why we've seen so much of our hard-earned tax dollars defrauded [5:08] there's look congressman told you we have strong protections we have the an office of office [5:12] this committee has spoken to nearly 30 whistleblowers and they came which are current employees [5:17] in your administration who have intimate knowledge of what what's been going on who have all stated [5:23] that they've faced retaliation for calling out fraud i can't speak to them what they felt and time is up [5:29] that they yield back