# Letter to Secretary Sean Duffy, Department of Transportation --- MTN Minneapolis, Minnesota [email protected] May 13, 2026 The Honorable Sean Duffy Secretary of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE Washington, DC 20590 **Re: Federal Transit, Highway, and Airport Aid to the Metropolitan Council and MnDOT — Met Council as Operational Endpoint of the University of Minnesota Humphrey School Regional-Governance Architecture; Coordination Request Under the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud (E.O. of March 16, 2026)** Dear Secretary Duffy: I write to identify the Department of Transportation's Minnesota portfolio — federal transit, highway, and airport aid to the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Department of Transportation; Southwest LRT cost overruns; Northstar Commuter Rail decommissioning; the Minneapolis-St. Paul/Mankato air-traffic-control tower question; and DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) compliance review — as one operational consequence of the Metropolitan Council architecture, which is the operational endpoint of the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs' regional-governance research program. **The Portfolio Issue.** The Metropolitan Council, an unelected appointed body governing the seven-county Twin Cities region, has an annual budget exceeding $1 billion and zero elected members. The Met Council administers federal transit funding through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), federal highway funding through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in cooperation with MnDOT, and regional airport coordination through the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Federal DBE compliance requirements layer onto every federally-funded project. Recent Met Council projects (Southwest LRT, Northstar) have exhibited cost overruns and operational difficulties that DOT oversight should review. https://metrocouncil.org/About-Us/What-We-Do/History-of-the-Metropolitan-Council.aspx **The University of Minnesota Origin.** The Metropolitan Council was created by the Minnesota Legislature in 1967 (Minn. Stat. §473.123 and successor provisions). Its enabling structure — including the "taxation without representation" feature of an appointed body with regional taxing authority — was substantially shaped by research and policy advocacy produced at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The University of Minnesota Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity (formerly the Institute on Race & Poverty) operates as the principal academic research apparatus studying the Met Council. The University of Minnesota Humphrey School credentials the senior staff of the Met Council. Ted Mondale, son of Vice President Walter Mondale, chaired the Met Council (1999-2003); Walter Mondale himself was a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School (1956). The full institutional architecture — research, credentialing, leadership — is University of Minnesota-anchored. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/473.123 | https://www.hhh.umn.edu/ **The Self-Referential Loop.** The University of Minnesota's Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity studies the Metropolitan Council. The Met Council implements policy based on research the Institute produces. The University trains the staff who implement the policy. Wilder Research and other UMN-adjacent research entities produce the needs assessments that justify the programs. The Citizens League — a Minnesota 501(c)(3) whose 2023 Form 990 documents 46% of revenue from a single donor — writes the reports justifying its funders' priorities, often citing UMN research. The federal transit and highway dollars DOT administers underwrite the institutional infrastructure that maintains this loop. https://citizensleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Public-Inspection-CL-2023-Form-990.pdf **The Institutional Admissions.** The University of Minnesota's own commissioned Truth Report (April 11, 2023) states that the founding board "committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain." In October 2025, the University signed an Office for Civil Rights Resolution Agreement acknowledging that its PhD Project partnership violated Title VI by discriminating against white and Asian students. The institution that produced the Metropolitan Council architecture has confessed in its own commissioned reports to both foundational fraud and contemporary unlawful discrimination. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf | https://www.startribune.com/the-u-signs-agreement-acknowledging-discrimination-against-white-and-asian-students-cuts-ties-with-recruiting-nonprofit/601564669 **The Consolidated Federal Posture.** The Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, established by the March 16, 2026 Executive Order, coordinates the cross-agency response. The DOJ has filed United States v. State of Minnesota (0:25-cv-03798) against §43A.191. The Title IX referral to DOJ is active. The House Oversight investigation has documented the broader $9 billion Minnesota Medicaid fraud architecture, of which DOT's federal aid program is the transit-and-infrastructure parallel. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/establishing-the-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud/ **The Ask.** I respectfully request that the Department of Transportation: 1. **Review FTA and FHWA grant conditions** to the Metropolitan Council and MnDOT in light of the consolidated federal posture under the Task Force framework, with particular attention to DBE program compliance and to the federal-aid attachment to sanctuary-policy questions; 2. **Audit Southwest LRT cost overruns** and recent Met Council project finance, treating the unelected-governance structure as a material program-integrity factor; 3. **Coordinate with DOJ** on any aspects of the Met Council's federally-funded operations that intersect with the §43A.191 challenge, the Title IX referral, or the Operation Metro Surge enforcement effort; and 4. **Report findings to the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud** under the March 16, 2026 Executive Order coordination framework. This letter is one of approximately twenty Cabinet-level briefings I am submitting under the Task Force framework. Respectfully submitted, MTN [email protected] --- **Primary Sources Cited:** - E.O. Task Force to Eliminate Fraud: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/establishing-the-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud/ - Met Council history: https://metrocouncil.org/About-Us/What-We-Do/History-of-the-Metropolitan-Council.aspx - Minn. Stat. §473.123: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/473.123 - US v. State of Minnesota: https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1415681/dl - UMN Humphrey School: https://www.hhh.umn.edu/ - Citizens League 990 (2023): https://citizensleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Public-Inspection-CL-2023-Form-990.pdf - UMN TRUTH Report: https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf - UMN OCR Resolution Agreement: https://www.startribune.com/the-u-signs-agreement-acknowledging-discrimination-against-white-and-asian-students-cuts-ties-with-recruiting-nonprofit/601564669 #Addresses_Advisories_and_Archives