WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) today issued a subpoena to Governor Tim Walz’s administration to hold it accountable in what has been called the “largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation.” Subpoenas were also issued to the Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Office of Inspector General (OIG).
In 2022, a U.S. attorney charged 70 individuals associated with Minnesota-based Feeding Our Future (FOF) for their alleged roles in defrauding the USDA of over $250 million in taxpayer funds—money intended to feed hungry children. To date, five individuals have been convicted of fraud that the assistant U.S. attorney on the case called “not just criminal, [but] depraved and brazen.” Charges include federal programs bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. While dozens are still awaiting trial, questions remain regarding the role of the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) administration of the Federal Child Nutrition Programs and its oversight of FOF.
After MDE, under Governor Walz, failed to respond to previous attempts by the Committee to garner information necessary to uncover how the Governor and the USDA allowed such fraud to occur, the Committee today is proceeding with a subpoena to compel responses.
In the subpoena cover letter to Governor Walz, Chairwoman Foxx writes: “As the chief executive and the highest ranking official in the state of Minnesota, you are responsible for the MDE and its administration of FCNPs…Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, MDE’s administration of the FCNP and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud.”
In the subpoena cover letter to the Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett, Chairwoman Foxx writes: “On June 25, 2024, and August 9, 2024, the Committee received two additional productions of documents. Despite these productions, the documents and information provided to the Committee do not explain how your agency and the USDA failed to identify what has been described as the largest pandemic fraud in the nation. The MDE’s production of information has been neither timely nor fully responsive. Accordingly, the Committee is invoking compulsory process.”
Read the full subpoenas here.
BACKGROUND:
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) are USDA-funded, state agency-administered Federal Child Nutrition Programs intended to provide reimbursement for meals to eligible children. States contract with entities that provide meals and then claim reimbursement for those meals. USDA provides the funding for these reimbursements while state agencies generally lead administrative duties, such as reimbursement of funds and oversight of meal sites. MDE is the designated state agency responsible for administering both CACFP and SFSP in Minnesota.
FOF was a nonprofit organization approved by MDE to be a sponsor of federal meals programs. Criminal charges allege that individuals, including FOF's leader, conspired to fraudulently claim $250 million in federal meals funds that were allegedly spent instead on luxury vehicles, real estate, and other unlawful purchases.
In June, Chairwoman Foxx, joined by Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA), Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture Subcommittee Chairman Brad Finstad (R-MN), Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), and Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN), sent a letter to Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett requesting details on the Department’s role in the situation.
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