Yes, welfare dollars can be sent overseas — these lawmakers want to change that

TLDR:

• Two Minnesota Republican congressmen introduced legislation to strip welfare benefits from noncitizens who send more than $1,000 a year abroad.
• The bill comes after a $300 million pandemic-era food assistance fraud scandal in Minnesota’s Somali community.
• Researchers say some of that fraudulently obtained welfare money was funneled to Al-Shabaab, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
• A federal judge this week allowed the Trump administration to withhold $250 million in Minnesota Medicaid payments until the state improves its anti-fraud controls.

Your tax dollars may be leaving the country — and two Minnesota Republicans want to put a stop to it.

Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber introduced legislation Tuesday that would revoke welfare eligibility for any noncitizen who sends more than $1,000 annually back to their home country. The bill targets cash and in-kind benefits, including food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance and unemployment insurance.

“We are done watching our hard-earned money be sent overseas while the programs meant for our own citizens are gutted by fraud,” Ms. Fischbach said.

The push comes amid a massive scandal in Minnesota, where dozens of members of the Minneapolis-area Somali community were convicted of stealing roughly $300 million from a pandemic-era food assistance program. Researchers at the Manhattan Institute later found that some of that fraudulently obtained money had flowed to Al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization.

A federal judge Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to defer more than $250 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota until the state demonstrates a credible anti-fraud plan.

Noncitizens receiving benefits would be required to certify compliance, verified through a new federal database.

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Read more:

• Lawmakers want to block welfare recipients from sending cash abroad

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