Sen. Ron Johnson said Sunday he plans to use subpoena power to obtain records in the Minnesota Medicaid fraud case, calling the alleged abuse "the tip of the iceberg" and promising an aggressive congressional investigation into how federal funds were handled by state agencies.
"I'm chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations," the Wisconsin Republican said in a televised interview.
"I've got subpoena power, and I will use that to obtain these records because we have to get to the bottom of this," he added.
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota recently said fraud tied to certain Medicaid-funded services could total $9 billion or more, citing 14 "high-risk" programs under review in which providers billed roughly $18 billion since 2018.
Prosecutors said as much as half of that spending could be fraudulent.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state human services officials have disputed the estimate, calling it overstated while acknowledging widespread problems with fraud and oversight.
Johnson said investigators need both testimony and documents and suggested federal agencies that route money to states should demand transparency from their state-level counterparts.
"We need to put all kinds of pressure on the state agencies to give us their records," Johnson said.
"These agency heads who funnel the federal money to the state agencies, they have to demand that the state agencies are transparent," he added.
Johnson said some states are resisting oversight. "They're refusing to turn over those records," he said.
He said the Minnesota case highlights broader weaknesses in federal spending programs.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Johnson said, adding that the federal government is "probably the easiest payer to fleece."
Johnson also addressed the looming government funding deadline, saying Republicans want to avoid a shutdown and return spending to "a reasonable pre-pandemic level."
"We don't want government shutdowns," Johnson said. "We'd like to start returning to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending."
He criticized Democrats for intensifying shutdown pressure and said he wants Congress to prevent federal workers and the public from being caught in the middle of funding disputes.
"The thing I was holding out for is let's make sure we pass the Shutdown Fairness Act," Johnson said, describing it as a measure to ensure people are paid if the government closes.
"Stop using government employees and the American public as pawns in the dysfunction," he added.
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