Texas Governor Orders Statewide Child‑Care Fraud Crackdown, Blasts Minnesota’s ‘Epic Failure’ Under Walz

Texas Governor Greg Abbott unleashed a directive Monday, ordering state agencies to hunt down and stop any child‑care funding fraud inside Texas’s system. The governor made clear exactly why: the massive, systemic, taxpayer‑draining scandal that exploded in Minnesota under Democrat Governor Tim Walz.

Abbott said the Trump Administration and independent journalists exposed “potential systematic fraud” in Minnesota’s subsidized child‑care program — a scandal so extensive it became a national embarrassment. The governor promised that Texas would never allow the kind of rampant abuse that flourished under Walz’s watch.

“Such fraud will never be tolerated in Texas,” Abbott stated on Monday. “Today, I directed Texas state agencies to take proactive steps to prevent, detect, and eliminate misuse of taxpayer funds.”

Abbott’s letter to Texas Health and Human Services Commission Executive Commissioner Stephanie Muth lays out a sweeping, no‑nonsense crackdown. Texas already maintains one of the lowest improper‑payment rates in the country — 0.43 percent, the governor stated. Minnesota, by contrast, clocked in at approximately 11 percent, according to federal data. Abbott didn’t sugarcoat the comparison: Minnesota’s system collapsed under its own corruption while Walz looked the other way.

“Schemes like the ones uncovered in Minnesota harm taxpayers as well as other families and children waiting to participate,” Abbott wrote. “Waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars will not be tolerated and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law in Texas.”

Also on Monday, Breitbart’s John Nolte reported on Walz’s decision to withdraw his re-election bid for a third term as Minnesota’s governor. Nolte wrote:

This is a Shakespearean fall from grace for the man who, a little over a year ago, was riding high as the Democrat Party’s nominee for the vice presidency.

Walz released a statement Monday filled with a lot of whining and blame-shifting over the exploding Somali fraud scandal

Under Abbott’s order, the Texas Workforce Commission and Health and Human Services Commission must immediately:

• Target high‑risk providers and conduct aggressive, unannounced site visits
• Tighten data controls to stop fraud before it starts
• Verify every child enrolled so providers can’t bill for ghost children
• Audit local workforce boards and force corrective action where standards slip
• Expand fraud‑reporting hotlines and portals so Texans can report abuse instantly
• Send every completed fraud case to state or federal prosecutors

Abbott’s message was unmistakable: Texas will not become Minnesota. Texas will not allow child‑care operators to siphon off taxpayer dollars while families wait for help. And Texas will not tolerate the kind of bureaucratic collapse that happened under Walz.

The governor ordered agencies to deliver a progress report by January 30, 2026, and a final report by February 27, 2026.

Abbott closed with a promise that Texas will stay vigilant, saying: “I will continue to work with executive branch agencies to fight fraud, protect taxpayer dollars, and promote accessible, affordable, high‑quality childcare for Texans.”