Make Government Accountable and Root out Fraud

A plan to get real results for Minnesotans and make the government accountable.

Innovative: New ways to solve our biggest challenges.
Effective: Deliver results.
Accountable: Immediate action to root out fraud.

Fixing the government is the foundation of everything we need to do. As governor, Amy Klobuchar intends to transform our state government to be innovative, effective, and accountable.

That means modern technology that delivers results fast. It means turning the page on a bureaucracy that leaves people dreading having to jump through hoops to get a permit or start a business. We need the government to make it easy to start a business, build a business, and bring good-paying jobs to Minnesota. This is about delivering a government that moves as fast as Minnesotans.

Holding our government accountable means making sure the money coming out of your paycheck is not misspent. It means rooting out fraud and insisting on accountability for those who stole taxpayer dollars. And it means changing the way government works to stop fraud before it starts — so people who genuinely need help can actually get it.

Amy Klobuchar will take on our biggest challenges and root out fraud and waste. She is committed to getting results for Minnesotans and making government accountable.

Innovative

New ways to solve our biggest challenges.

Make Government Work for You

Modernize state government to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Replace decades-old IT systems with modern technology, paid for through bonding, so the government works better for everyone who depends on it.
Make state services mobile-first. Make state services fully accessible on a phone – if a service cant be completed on a phone, it isn’t moving at the speed Minnesotans expect.
Track applications in real time. Show Minnesotans who apply for permits and other services from the state what step they’re on, who has the application, and when to expect a response – the same way they track a package.
Launch a Minnesota Innovation Initiative. Use technology to improve government services, streamline state applications, and make it easier to start and grow a business.
Launch the Last Mile Initiative to finish universal broadband. Direct state matching dollars to the 120,000 households still lacking the 100/20 Mbps standard because they’re the costliest to reach.

Get New Ideas and Put Them Into Action

Launch a Minnesota Innovation Network. Build a coordinated statewide system that connects Minnesota businesses to universities, research centers, and incubators with hubs focused on advanced manufacturing, energy, health care, and agriculture – so a good idea from a lab in Duluth or a farm in Worthington has a clear path to becoming a product, a company, and Minnesota jobs. Pool resources and use public-private financing to speed commercialization and connect innovators with employers.
Launch Minnesota Voices at Work. Tell us your ideas about how to make government more innovative, effective, and accountable. You can share your idea here.

Effective

Deliver real results.

Remove Obstacles for Small Businesses and Workers

Predictable deadlines, or your money back. Require routine interactions with the state get done on deadline or the fee is refunded.
Streamline Minnesota’s permitting process. Direct agencies to adopt accountable permitting deadlines and refund the cost of license and permit fees if applications aren’t decided within the promised timeframe.
Modernize online permitting into a single, simplified, user-friendly application. One login, one place to track status, replacing the disconnected agency-by-agency process.
Launch a single Minnesota Business One-Stop portal. Consolidate permits, licenses, and business registration in one place; eliminate the agency-by-agency maze for entrepreneurs.

Get Your Money’s Worth

Make state dollars go further. Require agencies to identify and deliver savings through program efficiencies, procurement reform, IT modernization, and administrative streamlining.
Review state programs on a regular schedule against real results. If it’s working, keep it. If it’s not, fix it or end it.
Hold low-performing programs and agencies accountable. Cut duplicative or underperforming programs that don’t deliver.

Save Time and Money

Leverage state buying power, including to negotiate lower drug prices. Consolidate pharmaceutical volume to expand Minnesota’s bulk-purchasing reach.
Create a “One-Form” application for health care. Eliminate redundant paperwork for patients and providers by building a single mobile application.

Read Klobuchar’s full plan to lower health care costs at AmyKlobuchar.com/healthcare.

Putting Housing within Reach

Work with the private sector to build 100,000 more homes in Minnesota, from single-family houses to condos to apartment units.
Streamline building codes. Eliminate redundant regulatory requirements that drive up construction costs without compromising safety.
Build more homes faster. Work with localities to set timelines for housing permit reviews and reduce bureaucratic delays that drive up prices and rents.
Lower city permitting costs. Provide state-designed permitting templates so cities and builders cut paperwork while keeping local control.
Simplify homeownership support. Create a Fast-Track application for home buyers that merges state, local, and federal down-payment assistance into a single step.
Create a statewide “No Wrong Door” network for rental assistance. Route Minnesotans who contact a state agency or local provider to available resources.

Klobuchar’s full plan to lower housing costs at AmyKlobuchar.com/housing.

Accountable

Immediate action to root out fraud.

1. Stop Fraud Before it Starts

Require thorough front-end screening. Build on recent reforms by requiring thorough front-end screening for all grants and contracts before state funds are awarded.
Increase oversight. Turn the new reporting requirements into regular and unannounced in-person inspections, in addition to annual reports.
Establish a state “Do Not Pay” database. Make the new exclusion list a true Do Not Pay system that automatically blocks any individual or contractor convicted of fraud from every grant, contract, and payment system across state government.
Review billing changes regularly to identify when providers suddenly shift or start billing for more services – patterns that may signal fraud.
Provide stronger oversight by giving people the technology and training to continuously monitor data. Build on recent funding and reforms to ensure continuous data monitoring across every agency, so technology identifies patterns and people make the calls.

2. Hold People Accountable and Strengthen Criminal Enforcement

Strengthen criminal enforcement by toughening the criminal fraud statute, increasing penalties for organized fraud schemes, and extending the statute of limitations for all fraud offenses involving state programs. In addition to the recent adoption of Attorney General Ellison’s bill, the same tougher sentencing should apply to all state programs, not just Medicaid.
Establish a Permanent Ban for anyone convicted of fraud against state grants or contracts– including executives, subsidiaries or other entities that knowingly participated in the crime.
Freeze suspicious payments before money goes out the door. Use the new state authority to direct every agency to freeze suspicious payments while fraud is investigated, coordinate freezes across programs, and report publicly on dollars protected.
Close gaps in enforcement so fraud can be prosecuted consistently regardless of how funds are administered.
Treat kickbacks as fraud. When a provider pays off a family to bring in Medicaid patients that’s fraud in Medicaid and should be prosecuted as fraud across the board.

3. Conduct a Top-To-Bottom Audit of State Government

Audit state agencies to identify fraud, waste, and abuse.
Require action plans based on detailed reviews of Office of the Legislative Auditor reports.
Work closely with the Legislative Auditor and State Inspector General by meeting regularly with their office to catch and address issues early.
Empower agencies and providers to identify and shut down fraud, waste and abuse by creating a clear process that rewards people who report credible instances of fraud and incentivizes the responsible management of taxpayer dollars.
Protect whistleblowers. Create clear, accessible reporting pathways for fraud tips and real protections for people who raise concerns.

4. Modernize State Government to Prevent, Detect, and Stop Fraud

Stop running a 21st-century state on 1990s technology. Build on recent funding allocations to replace decades-old state payment and IT systems with modern tools that monitor claims, match data across programs, and catch problems before payments go out. The recently enacted funding was a down payment for the work that needs to be done.
Implement the Independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) so Minnesotans have a permanent office to coordinate across agencies. Keep everyone accountable and ensure agencies have trained program-integrity staff who will work with the new OIG.
Ensure every agency is taking on fraud and working with the new OIG. Require agencies to have trained program-integrity staff who work with the new OIG to spot problems early and act on them before they become a crisis, and make whatever staffing changes are necessary to ensure accountability.
Fix the outdated patchwork of systems that administer services. Use the new modernization fund as a down payment to replace 87 different systems with an up-to-date backbone that keeps delivery in local hands. Obtain additional funding to finish the job.
Close the revolving door. Ban state employees and elected officials from steering grants or contracts to organizations and then taking jobs at those same organizations.
Prevent copycat crimes by using the new data-sharing authority, coordinating investigations, and ensuring warning signs in one program are acted on across programs.