{"id":112157,"date":"2026-01-06T02:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112157\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T02:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:01:12","slug":"gov-greg-abbott-orders-texas-child-care-fraud-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112157\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov Greg Abbott orders Texas child care fraud investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

Gov. Greg Abbott\u00a0sent a letter Monday directing Texas state agencies to investigate potential child care funding fraud, following\u00a0a major Minnesota social services scandal that cost taxpayers millions.<\/p>\n

“Recently, the Trump Administration and independent journalists have uncovered potential systematic fraud in subsidized child care systems in states like Minnesota<\/a>,” Abbott said in a statement. “Such fraud will never be tolerated in Texas. Today, I directed Texas state agencies to take proactive steps to prevent, detect, and eliminate misuse of taxpayer funds to protect the integrity of Texas\u2019 Child Care Services Program.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s letter was addressed to Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Chairman Jose Esparza and Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Executive Commissioner Stephanie Muth to lead the investigation. Both agencies have broad authority to strengthen fraud prevention efforts in the state’s child care program and regulate facilities.<\/p>\n

The agencies will have until Feb. 27 to submit a final report outlining how they implemented anti-fraud measures and investigated any potential misuse of Texas taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

HOW FEARS OF BEING LABELED ‘RACIST’ HELPED ‘PROVIDE COVER’ FOR THE EXPLODING MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Greg <\/p>\n

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is instructing two Texas agencies to investigate any misuse of taxpayer dollars in the state’s child care programs. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Abbott noted that Texas already<\/a> has a relatively low “improper payment rate” of 0.43 percent, compared with Minnesota\u2019s roughly 11 percent, thanks to the agencies\u2019 strong anti-fraud processes already in place.<\/p>\n

While the agencies already conduct routine audits of providers and in-person visits to facilities, “more can be done to protect Texas children and taxpayers,” Abbott said in the letter.<\/p>\n

CRITICS WARN MINNESOTA LEGISLATION NOW TAKING EFFECT IS SETTING UP THE ‘NEXT BILLION-DOLLAR FRAUD’<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Minnesota <\/p>\n

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is facing mounting scrutiny over the state\u2019s handling of widespread fraud across multiple public aid programs. (Tibrina Hobson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

HHSC and TWC will provide a progress report to the governor\u2019s office on Jan. 30, followed by a final report in late February.<\/p>\n

“I will continue to work with executive branch agencies to fight fraud, protect taxpayer dollars, and promote accessible, affordable, high-quality childcare for Texans,” Abbott added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move comes just hours after Minnesota\u00a0Gov. Tim Walz announced that he is suspending his reelection campaign amid allegations that the state attempted to cover up widespread fraud<\/a> in his state\u2019s social programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scandal, which emerged in early December, involved individuals from the Somali-American community accused of defrauding public aid programs.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

While the schemes began with the Feeding Our Future case, which reportedly exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the pandemic, investigators have since uncovered what they describe as a web of interconnected fraud spanning multiple sectors, including child care, Medicaid, housing and autism services.<\/p>\n

Bonny Chu is a Digital Production Assistant at Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Gov. Greg Abbott\u00a0sent a letter Monday directing Texas state agencies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[392,11728,49707,27,29,28,46859],"class_list":{"0":"post-112157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-greg-abbott","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-fraud-exposed","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-tim-walz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}