As feds get aggressive on fraud, Mass. Gov. Healey defends state’s efforts
Gov. Maura Healey is defending the commonwealth's efforts to root out benefits fraud even as federal prosecutors step up their enforcement efforts in the Bay State.
Last week, the state's top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, announced her office had created new welfare and voter fraud teams after determining there were "insufficient guardrails" in place in the state.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with legislative leaders on Monday, Democrat Healey insisted that she supported "going after and shutting down" any fraud as it occurred.
"I did that as attorney general. I continue to do that as governor through the program integrity work of our agencies, where, if we have suspicions of fraud, we immediately take action," she said. "We report those to the Attorney General's office, we report those to the U.S. Attorney's Office."
Officials in deep blue Massachusetts have bristled at the Republican Trump administration's "War on Fraud," helmed by Vice President JD Vance, arguing that it's little more than an attack on states that went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
"The Trump administration has shown it is only interested in weaponizing fraud for political gain," U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said recently.
But two recent investigations by state Auditor Diana DiZoglio's office rooted out millions of dollars in benefit fraud , mostly in the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.
The joint federal-state program provides food assistance to low-income residents. But it also has proven an irresistible target for fraudsters.
In Massachusetts, 1.1 million people receive food assistance through the program, Healey's office has said.
Foley, a Trump appointee, announced the new fraud unit late last month, saying her office was "committed to assisting the administration's war on fraud."
It came as Foley's office announced it was charging nine people, including a Dominican national, with stealing nearly $300,000 in SNAP, Social Security and MassHealth benefits, as the Medicaid program is known in the Bay State.
Foley's office has charged 15 people in connection with nearly $9 million in alleged fraud, including SNAP and MassHealth fraud, since last December.
"It has become apparent that there are insufficient guardrails in place in Massachusetts to address the rampant benefit fraud across the state," Foley said. "It is time to hold criminals stealing taxpayer benefits accountable. This has gone on far too long and the buck stops with me."
Meanwhile, state health and human services officials told lawmakers at a hearing that they're staffing up in anticipation of increased federal scrutiny.
"We just expect that the amount of audits and requests that we're going to get is probably going to double to triple over the next few months," Health and Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah told lawmakers, according to State House News Service .
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Healey said she wasn't sure why Foley was announcing the creation of a new fraud unit since there already was an existing Medicaid fraud unit in that office.
"As attorney general, my Medicaid fraud unit used to work directly with that one," she said. "But again, you know, I think we should be working together to make sure that any and all fraud out there is eradicated."
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