WASHINGTON — The House Education and Workforce Committee issued subpoenas Wednesday to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Minnesota Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for how they responded to what federal prosecutors have called the largest pandemic fraud schemes in the country.
The subpoenas, obtained first by NBC News, demand that Walz, Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Agriculture Inspector General Phyllis Fong turn over documents concerning oversight of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which is alleged to have misused millions of dollars intended to feed children during the pandemic.
Walz’s record has faced new scrutiny since Vice President Kamala Harris tapped him as her running mate last month, though this new request by the Republican-led committee is part of an investigative effort that goes back to 2022.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the committee chair, wrote in a letter to Walz that the committee is requesting this information to show “the extent of your responsibilities and actions addressing the massive fraud that resulted in the abuse of taxpayer dollars intended for hungry children.”
A Walz spokeswoman called the alleged fraud “an appalling abuse of a federal COVID-era program,” adding: “The state department of education worked diligently to stop the fraud and we’re grateful to the FBI for working with the department of education to arrest and charge the individuals involved.”
According to a June state audit report, the Minnesota Education Department failed to properly oversee Feeding Our Future, saying the department’s “actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud.”
State education officials are tasked with overseeing federal programs that reimburse groups like Feeding Our Future for providing free, nutritious meals to children. The state audit called the Minnesota Education Department’s oversight “inadequate.”
Jett, the top education official, submitted a written response to the report that put the blame on the individuals involved in the scheme. “What happened with Feeding Our Future was a travesty — a coordinated, brazen abuse of nutrition programs that exist to ensure access to healthy meals for low-income children,” he wrote. “The responsibility for this flagrant fraud lies with the indicted and convicted fraudsters.”
Following the report, Walz said there was no “malfeasance” at the state level. “There’s not a single state employee that was implicated in doing anything that was illegal,” Walz said at a press conference in June according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. “They simply didn’t do as much due diligence as they should have.”
In December 2022, Walz announced the addition of an inspector general position at the state department of education, “a critical step to ensuring proper oversight of federal funds,” he said in a statement at the time.
Prosecutors allege that Feeding Our Future opened more than 250 sites throughout Minnesota and submitted fraudulent attendance rosters of the names of fake children they claimed were receiving the meals.
The U.S. Justice Department has charged 70 individuals in connection to the scheme. Eighteen have pleaded guilty and five were convicted in June.
The state education department reported Feeding Our Future to the FBI in April 2021 on fraud suspicions, according to the audit. The FBI started an investigation the next month.
Prior to that, the education department had notified the USDA inspector general’s office in the fall of 2020 during President Donald Trump’s administration about concerns over the growth of Feeding Our Future but the agency did not take action, the audit said.
Foxx, along with the Republican leaders of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Agriculture Committee, first requested documents from the U.S. Agriculture Department in September 2022 after federal charges were unsealed in the case concerning Feeding Our Future. At that point, Republicans were in the minority in the House so they did not control committees.
Once in the majority in 2023, Foxx and her fellow committee chairs followed up with USDA. The group of Republicans also requested documents from Jett in June.
Foxx said in letters accompanying the subpoenas that both the USDA’s and the Minnesota Education Department’s “production of information has been neither timely nor fully responsive.”
The top Democrat on the committee criticized the timing of the subpoena and noted in a timeline that it marks the first public outreach to Walz by Republicans. “The timing of the Republican’s subpoena to Governor Walz is weird,” Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said.
Walz and the state and federal officials have until Sept. 18 to provide the requested documents, according to the subpoenas, though none of them are required to testify.
NBC News has reached out to all of the individuals subpoenaed for comment.
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