Members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee subpoenaed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee, for questioning concerning a nonprofit in his state accused of misusing $250 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the committee's chairwoman, Wednesday issued subpoenas for Walz, Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Agriculture Inspector General Phyllis Fong, reports The Hill.
The Justice Department has charged 70 people associated with the Minnesota-based Feeding Our Future (FOF) with fraud for allegedly creating fake names for children to seek reimbursements for free meals that were never served.
Of those, 18 have pleaded guilty, and five were convicted in June, reports NBC News.
"Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, MDE's [Minnesota Department of Education's] administration of the FCNP [Federal Child Nutrition Program] and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud," Foxx said in the letter to Walz.
He was given until Sept. 18 to provide the requested information to the committee.
In June, a state audit report said the Minnesota Education Department did not properly oversee Feeding our Future, and that the department's "actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud," reports NBC News.
The state's education officials were to oversee federal programs to reimburse groups like FOF for providing free meals for children, and the state audit said their oversight of the program was "inadequate."
Jett, as the state's top education official, responded to the report, saying that the individuals involved in the scheme were to blame, not the state.
"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," Jett wrote. "The responsibility for this flagrant fraud lies with the indicted and convicted fraudsters."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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