At Hearing, House GOP Scolds Minn. Governor Over Medicaid Fraud Scandal
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said the government has flooded his state with ICE agents "under the guise of combating fraud." Plus: The New York Times reviewed nearly 200 lawsuits challenging the president's power to withhold funding, including from hospitals that don’t alter their services and nonprofits that don’t embrace his gender views.
The Hill:
Republicans Grill Tim Walz, Keith Ellison In Heated Hearing
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday tore into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) over their handling of a fraud scandal within Minnesota’s social services programs. President Trump has made the scam, and the fact that many of those convicted were of Somali descent, central to his immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. And in his State of the Union address last month, he announced a broader “war on fraud.” (Rego, 3/4)
The New York Times:
Trump Has Been Sued 198 Times For Withholding Funding. It Hasn’t Stopped Him.
President Trump has tried to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding to coerce states, punish opponents, remake programs and impose his views. His targets have repeatedly sued to stop him, and the courts have repeatedly rebuked him — only for the president to try again and again. Take just these seven cases, all of them tied to the administration’s efforts to block funds from “sanctuary” communities, those that restrict cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. (Badger and Parlapiano, 3/3)
Bloomberg Law:
Trump Administration Funding Delays Worry NIH Grant Recipients
The National Institutes of Health is months behind on dispersing the bulk of its fiscal 2026 money to grantees, and research advocates worry that without an update on the delay the Trump administration will claw back the funds or create multiyear grants that hamstring the recipients. Limited money from last month’s government funding law is being dispersed through the NIH and is largely limited to government salaries and continuing emergency activities, according to three people familiar with NIH grantmaking procedures. The grant money that is flowing out has come from carryover funds from a November stopgap funding measure. (Raman, 3/3)
More on the Trump administration —
The Hill:
RFK Jr. Puts Dunkin’ On Notice; Massachusetts Governor Says ‘Come And Take It’
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said Dunkin’ and other companies will need to prove that their ingredients are safe, prompting Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) on Wednesday to reply back, “Come and take it.” Kennedy, while at a rally at Brazos Hall last week in Austin, Texas, said, “We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s OK for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it.'” He added, as the audience applauded, “I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it." (Mancini, 3/4)
Undark:
Do Leaders At The NIH Stick Around Too Long?
When Anthony Fauci stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022, he had been in the role for 38 years. He had served under seven different presidents and overseen more than $100 billion of federal spending; a young infectious disease researcher beginning a Ph.D. program when Fauci took office could easily be a graying professor emeritus by the time he left. (Talpos and Schulson, 3/4)
Also —
AP:
Cuban Doctors Leave Honduras In Abrupt End To Medical Program
More than 150 Cuban medical staff climbed aboard a plane in Honduras on Wednesday, leaving the Central American country after it’s newly elected right-wing government abruptly cancelled the agreement. The departure of the medical staff comes as President Donald Trump has pushed to isolate the Cuban government and openly called for regime change. (González, 3/5)
Stat:
Jeffrey Epstein DNA At Harvard Involved In New Mystery
There’s a new mystery involving Jeffrey Epstein and a Harvard genome sequencing project that he participated in. Somebody appears to have recently altered the Personal Genome Project’s public profile page believed to belong to Epstein to indicate that he provided his consent to join the study on Jan. 31, 2026. That is one day after the Department of Justice released its latest tranche of files on the sex trafficker, and more than six years after he was found dead in a jail cell. (Molteni, 3/4)
