Republican lawmakers in Minnesota are blasting Governor Tim Walz for spending $430,000 in taxpayer money to prepare for a congressional hearing on “sanctuary city” policies. The GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee summoned Walz and other blue state governors to testify in mid-June regarding their handling of immigration enforcement and sanctuary-related issues.
According to invoices obtained by the Star Tribune, Walz hired the global law firm K&L Gates to assist with legal preparation from April through the June hearing. In May alone, the legal fees exceeded $232,000, with attorneys billing at an average rate of $516 per hour. Critics have called the spending excessive, arguing that it served more as political image management than legal necessity.
Minnesota Rep. Jim Nash, a Republican member of the state’s Legislative Advisory Commission, questioned why the governor didn’t use state legal resources. “A half a million dollars to prepare for a congressional hearing? That’s absurd,” Nash said, adding that both Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison served in Congress and were fully capable of managing the matter without outside counsel.
Fellow Republican Rep. Harry Niska also condemned the spending, claiming it was part of a broader effort by Walz to raise his national profile. “This appears to be PR consulting disguised as legal preparation,” Niska stated. “Minnesotans shouldn’t be paying for the governor’s presidential ambitions.”
The governor’s office dismissed the criticism, labeling the hearing a Republican-led “political stunt.” Walz spokesperson Teddy Tschann argued the event was more about partisan grandstanding than policy debate. Notably, similar legal expenses have been reported in other cities—Boston and Denver each spent hundreds of thousands preparing officials for comparable congressional inquiries this year.
