Guest Editorial: Minnesota’s Reform Governor Can Start Now
The families of Minnesota who depend on SNAP need a Governor who fights for them when their benefits are stolen.
BNB Note:
While politics is often analyzed from the outside, BNB’s Guest Editorial Series aims to flip that perspective by highlighting the firsthand experiences of those working inside the political and policy arena. This includes lawmakers crafting legislation, candidates navigating the campaign trail, career civil servants implementing public programs, and political operatives shaping strategy behind the scenes.
The goal is not to litigate every claim or endorse every position, but to provide readers with direct insight into how decisions are made, how institutions function, and how power operates in practice.
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Below, is a guest editorial from Stan Soloway - President & CEO of Celero Strategies. Additionally, Soloway serves as a board member of the Defense Business Board, and is a Fellow of both the National Academy of Public Administration (where he also serves on the Board of Directors) and of the National Contract Management Association.
During the Clinton Administration, Soloway served as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense and was responsible for wide-ranging reforms to defense acquisition and technology policy and practices, and broader department-wide re-engineering. In recognition of his leadership in the department, Soloway was awarded both the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
Minnesota is at a crossroads. The state is emerging from one of the most damaging fraud scandals in American history, with federal prosecutors estimating that half or more of roughly $18 billion in federal funds flowing through 14 Minnesota-run social service programs may have been stolen since 2018. Dozens have already been charged and tried; and the fallout cost Governor Tim Walz his re-election campaign, shook public confidence in programs that working families depend on to survive, and handed political opponents a battering ram to use against every safety net program in the country.
All of this presents Senator Klobuchar, now running for Governor on a promise to clean up state government and with the experience of a prosecutor to do it, with a unique opportunity to get started on real reform now. And that opportunity begins with leading on key, bipartisan reforms to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program now before the Senate. SNAP is one of the most essential safety-net programs the federal government administers, and we advocate for it every day. But, as the Minnesota case demonstrated, it is also a program in need of real change.
The fraud is not theoretical. SNAP delivers food assistance to more than 42 million Americans each month via Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards protected by decades-old magnetic stripe technology that criminal networks exploit with terrifying efficiency. According to the USDA’s Office of Inspector General, between October 2022 and December 2024, the agency replaced $322 million in benefits stolen through EBT card skimming and cloning, with another $233 million in projected losses through 2026 if nothing changes. The GAO confirmed in September 2025 that most SNAP cards still lack the chip-enabled security features standard on every commercial credit and debit card in America. Criminals install skimming devices at checkout terminals, clone EBT cards, and drain accounts within minutes,victims only discovering the theft when their card is declined at the grocery store.
Fortunately, the legislative path to address these problems is clear. In March 2026, a bipartisan, bicameral group of Congresspeople and Senators re-introduced the Enhanced Cybersecurity for SNAP Act, requiring chip-enabled EBT cards that include up-to-date cybersecurity standards to protect recipients from theft. As Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Klobuchar, a powerful defender of SNAP, is uniquely positioned to move this legislation and get the ball rolling on critical reforms that will be essential to her broader reform agenda.
As another piece of critical reform, The Center for Accountability, Modernization, and Innovation (CAMI) is asking Senator Klobuchar, as ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, to support a bi-partisan provision in the recently reported Farm Bill to allow states to hire private contractors to address the EBT card and SNAP error rate problems without red tape and delays. This will help augment already overloaded and under-resourced public workforces to ensure efficient and effective administration of SNAP. Action in the Senate on the Farm Bill is next, and the people of Minnesota deserve quick action to make this provision law.
The Minnesota fraud scandal was not the result of beneficiaries gaming the system or even just corrupt officials. It happened because the systems built to detect and prevent fraud were inadequate and warning signs were ignored, thus enabling exploitation by criminal enterprises. Minnesota’s own Department of Human Services repeatedly reported inaccurate SNAP data to the federal government — misstating how much money the state distributed to recipients — leaving federal oversight authorities working from a fundamentally flawed picture of the crisis unfolding in the state.
When improper payments and bad data undermine public confidence, it gives opponents the ammunition to eliminate programs entirely. When programs are administered with integrity and modern tools, they become politically durable and serve their beneficiaries effectively.
The families of Minnesota who depend on SNAP need a Governor who fights for them when their benefits are stolen. Senator Klobuchar has the experience, the platform, and the moment — we’re asking her to use all three.
The Center for Accountability, Modernization and Innovation (CAMI) advocates for policies enabling public-private partnerships that drive innovation in and enhance the performance of federally funded public assistance programs. Learn more at thecenterforami.org.