# Letter to Director Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget --- MTN Minneapolis, Minnesota [email protected] May 13, 2026 The Honorable Russell Vought Director, Office of Management and Budget Executive Office of the President 725 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20503 **Re: OMB Apportionment and Rescission Authority Over Minnesota Federal Grants, Circular A-21/A-87 Cost-Principle Review of University of Minnesota / MnSCU / Met Council Indirect-Cost Recovery — Coordination Request Under the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud (E.O. of March 16, 2026)** Dear Director Vought: I write to identify the Office of Management and Budget's role as the cross-agency apportionment authority over Minnesota federal grants — and the OMB Circular A-21 / A-87 cost-principle review of University of Minnesota indirect-cost recovery — as the single executive-branch choke point at which the consolidated federal posture toward Minnesota can be operationally executed. **The Portfolio Issue.** OMB holds apportionment and rescission authority across the full range of federal grants flowing to Minnesota agencies and to the University of Minnesota itself: HHS EIDBI and CCAP, USDA CACFP and SNAP, ED IDEA and Title I, DOT formula funds, DOJ OVW, DOE research awards, and the indirect-cost reimbursement that flows to UMN, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system, and the Metropolitan Council under OMB Circulars A-21 (educational institutions) and A-87 (state and local governments). The cumulative federal-grant flow to Minnesota agencies and institutions is in the multi-billion-dollar annual range. The House Oversight Committee's March 4, 2026 report documents approximately $9 billion in Medicaid fraud alone across fourteen-plus state programs. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Circular-A-21.pdf | https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The-Cost-of-Doing-Nothing_How-Tim-Walz-and-Keith-Ellison-Fueled-Minnesotas-Fraud-Explosion_3.4.26_FINAL.pdf **The University of Minnesota Indirect-Cost-Recovery Question.** The University of Minnesota Office for the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is the largest single recipient of federal indirect-cost reimbursement in Minnesota. The negotiated indirect-cost rate covers the operation of the University's research administration apparatus, including its compliance infrastructure (EOAA, Title IX coordinator, Title VI coordinator, and the research-ethics apparatus that failed in the Markingson clinical-trial death documented by the Minnesota Legislative Auditor's October 2015 report). In October 2025, the University signed an OCR Resolution Agreement acknowledging that its PhD Project partnership violated Title VI by discriminating against white and Asian students — a federal-record admission that the compliance infrastructure OMB indirect-cost reimbursement supports has, in at least one program, operated unlawfully. https://research.umn.edu/ | https://www.legislativeauditor.leg.mn.state.mn.us/sreview/psychiatricrcoct2015.pdf | https://www.startribune.com/the-u-signs-agreement-acknowledging-discrimination-against-white-and-asian-students-cuts-ties-with-recruiting-nonprofit/601564669 **The Met Council Apportionment Question.** The Metropolitan Council, an unelected appointed body with an annual budget exceeding $1 billion, receives federal aid through the Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration, HUD CDBG, and EPA water-infrastructure programs. The Met Council's enabling architecture — created by the Minnesota Legislature in 1967 (Minn. Stat. §473.123) — was shaped substantially by University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs research; the University of Minnesota Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity is the principal academic research apparatus studying the Met Council, in a self-referential research-to-implementation loop. OMB apportionment review can reach this architecture. https://metrocouncil.org/About-Us/What-We-Do/History-of-the-Metropolitan-Council.aspx **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 Title VI violation. Both admissions are material institutional facts for OMB Circular A-21 cost-principle review, which permits OMB to question the reasonableness of federally-reimbursed activities. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf **The Consolidated Federal Posture.** OMB is, structurally, the single choke point where the executive branch's DISMANTLE-mode posture toward Minnesota can be operationally executed. Every other Cabinet department's letter in this campaign identifies a portfolio item that, ultimately, relies on OMB apportionment surviving to the Minnesota endpoint. The Task Force to Eliminate Fraud established by the March 16, 2026 Executive Order is the coordinating framework. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/establishing-the-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud/ **The Ask.** I respectfully request that the Office of Management and Budget: 1. **Conduct an A-21 cost-principle review** of the University of Minnesota's federally-negotiated indirect-cost rate, treating the October 2025 OCR Resolution Agreement as a material institutional fact bearing on the reasonableness of the compliance-overhead component of the rate; 2. **Audit A-87 reimbursement** to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the Minnesota Department of Education, and the Metropolitan Council, in light of the House Oversight Committee findings; 3. **Develop apportionment-conditioning** authority across the multi-department Minnesota federal-funding portfolio, coordinated with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, so that the executive-branch posture can be operationally executed through the single cross-agency apportionment node; and 4. **Coordinate with DOJ, ED, HHS, USDA, DOL, DOE, and DOT** through the Task Force framework to ensure that OMB apportionment decisions reinforce, rather than undercut, the cross-agency enforcement effort. This letter is one of approximately twenty Cabinet-level briefings I am submitting under the Task Force framework. The Office of Management and Budget receives the choke-point version because OMB holds the apportionment authority that makes the consolidated executive-branch posture operationally executable. 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/ - OMB Circular A-21: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Circular-A-21.pdf - House Oversight Report: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The-Cost-of-Doing-Nothing_How-Tim-Walz-and-Keith-Ellison-Fueled-Minnesotas-Fraud-Explosion_3.4.26_FINAL.pdf - UMN OVPR: https://research.umn.edu/ - Minnesota Legislative Auditor (2015): https://www.legislativeauditor.leg.mn.state.mn.us/sreview/psychiatricrcoct2015.pdf - Met Council history: https://metrocouncil.org/About-Us/What-We-Do/History-of-the-Metropolitan-Council.aspx - US v. State of Minnesota: https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1415681/dl - 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