House Republicans Subpoena Tim Walz Over Pandemic Aid Fraud | EUROtoday

U.S. House Republicans despatched a subpoena Wednesday to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, for details about how his state responded to an enormous fraud scheme by a nonprofit working a pandemic reduction program.

Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of individuals affiliated with a Minnesota nonprofit that stole $250 million value of help meant to feed youngsters.

“You are well aware of the multi-million-dollar fraud that has occurred under your tenure as Governor,” House Education and Workforce Committee chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) stated in a Wednesday letter accompanying the subpoena to Walz.

The subpoena requests any emails between Walz and the Minnesota companies administering the help that Foxx stated would present “the extent of your responsibilities and actions addressing the massive fraud that resulted in the abuse of taxpayer dollars intended for hungry children.”

Foxx had requested details about the fraud scheme from the Minnesota Department of Education in November 2023 and in June. In August, Walz grew to become Kamala Harris’ working mate ― and a a lot juicier goal for Republican oversight.

“This was an appalling abuse of a federal COVID-era program,” a spokeswoman for Walz stated in an e mail on Wednesday. “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.”

Congress significantly expanded social packages and licensed a whole lot of billions of {dollars} in help to companies with a purpose to forestall the COVID-19 pandemic from wrecking the U.S. economic system in 2020. One of the key modifications allowed states to distribute free faculty lunches to children no matter whether or not they had been poor sufficient to qualify and even whereas many faculties had been closed throughout the summer time of 2020.

People affiliated with Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that Minnesota employed to distribute meals, as a substitute used the funds to spend lavishly on themselves, based on prosecutors, reminiscent of by buying automobiles and even summer time houses abroad.

Nobody within the Minnesota authorities has been charged with wrongdoing, however an audit by the state legislature faulted the Minnesota Department of Education for ignoring purple flags about Feeding Our Future’s grant functions and program operations. The audit stated that the division requested the FBI to analyze in April 2021 and that the FBI opened its investigation the next month.

Walz responded to the audit when it got here out in June, clarifying that no state officers had been charged with wrongdoing.

“This wasn’t malfeasance,” Walz stated. “They simply didn’t do as much due diligence as they should have.”

After pandemic help expired, Walz was one in every of a number of Democratic governors who signed into legislation common free faculty meals. It is one in every of Walz’s best-known achievements as governor.