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Gov. Tim Walz is defending his administration’s move to spend $430,000 on outside counsel to prepare for a congressional hearing centered on immigration policy last month.

The DFL governor told reporters on Wednesday that his office contracted with law firm K & L Gates because its lawyers had more extensive expertise in immigration law than those already on the state payroll. 

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office supported the decision to bring in additional counsel to prepare Walz for a June 12 House Oversight Committee hearing in Washington centered on so-called sanctuary states. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both of whom are Democrats, were also called to testify before the GOP-led panel.

“We were required to go out to Congress under the guise of sanctuary states, which Minnesota is not, we’ve clearly answered on that,” Walz said. “This is a situation where we were going to be under oath and preparation to do this took additional folks that had expertise.”

Walz asked the Legislative Advisory Commission to sign off on the legal expenses. 

The Star Tribune first reported the reimbursement request

Minnesota Republicans criticized the use of taxpayer funds for the legal counsel, with U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Republican representing central Minnesota calling the governor a 

 and Rep. Pete Stauber, a GOP official from north eastern Minnesota, 

, “more wasted taxpayer money by the ‘knucklehead.’” 

Meanwhile, Walz said he and other governors shouldn’t have had to testify in the first place. 

“It’s expensive, it was unnecessary, we are not a sanctuary state,” Walz said. “I certainly sat through eight hours and answered all their questions but this doesn’t surprise me. These are the people that just passed a $3 trillion deficit bill and then grandstand on it.”

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The governor said the outside counsel had additional expertise in immigration law needed to prepare for the House Oversight Committee hearing on sanctuary states last month. Minnesota doesn’t have a sanctuary law, although some communities in the state do have ordinances limiting participation in immigration actions.

Gov. Tim Walz defends $430,000 ask for legal counsel used to prep for congressional hearing

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