Over $120 million in USDA award payments to Minnesota suspended, White House says

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Friday that she is suspending payments on all active and future awards from the USDA to Minnesota amid the long-running fraud scandal in which the White House has alleged a misuse of federal funds.

In a letter addressed to Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Rollins said the suspended payments, as of Friday evening, total just over $129 million.

As reasons for her suspension, she highlighted the alleged fraud schemes involving the nonprofit group Feeding Our Future, Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program, and claims of fraud at daycare centers around the state. 

“Despite a staggering, wide-reaching fraud scandal, your Administrations refuse to provide basic information or take common sense feasures to stop fraud,” Rollins said in the letter, which she posted on social media.

She asked Walz and Frey to provide her agency with justification for all federal spending to the state from Jan. 20 of last year “to the present” within 30 days, and said that payments moving forward will “require such payment justification.”

In a reply to Rollins’ post, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said on social media, “I will not allow you to take from Minnesotans in need. I’ll see you in court.”

WCCO has reached out to Walz’s and Frey’s respective offices for comment. 

A series of multimillion-dollar alleged fraud schemes in the state has drawn the attention of the Trump administration in recent months. President Trump has called Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the creation of a new IRS task force and other measures to combat fraud, underscoring the administration’s focus on the state amidst an immigration crackdown.

“Minnesota is going to be the protocols, procedures and investigative techniques and collaboration. Minnesota is going to be the genesis for a national rollout,” Bessent said while visiting the state.

U.S. officials told CBS News on Wednesday that the Justice Department is sending a team of federal prosecutors to Minnesota to help investigate allegations of widespread fraud within the state’s social services programs.

Walz on Monday announced he was dropping out of the 2026 gubernatorial race amid intense scrutiny of his handling of the scandal, though he has defended his administration’s response, saying “we’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters” and accusing Mr. Trump of “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”