U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies on May 15, 2025, in Washington.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced plans for a targeted review of Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program amid increased scrutiny of fraud in the state’s human services programs, an issue that has gained political attention at the national level.

In a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the department said recent news reports detailing fraud in Medicaid-funded human services programs could indicate potential fraud or abuse within the state’s unemployment benefits system.

“If there has been any related abuse of our (unemployment insurance) systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a press release,

Also, Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business on Monday that her agency was sending an unemployment insurance ‘strike team’ to Minnesota to widen the fraud probe.

“We’re going to send in a UI strike team to find out exactly what’s happening on the ground. We will NOT tolerate fraud under this administration,” she told host Stuart Varney.

A spokesperson for DEED stated that the agency consistently surpasses the federal Department of Labor’s standards for payment accuracy and maintains a fraud rate lower than the national average.

“We welcome the opportunity to illustrate the strength of our payment controls and oversight,” DEED said.

Chavez-DeRemer is the latest Trump administration official to focus on fraud in Minnesota in recent weeks after the issue drew the attention of President Trump.