House Republicans Subpoena Tim Walz Over Pandemic Aid Fraud

U.S. House Republicans sent a subpoena Wednesday to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, for information about how his state responded to a massive fraud scheme by a nonprofit operating a pandemic relief program.

Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people affiliated with a Minnesota nonprofit that stole $250 million worth of aid intended to feed children.

“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.) said in a Wednesday letter accompanying the subpoena to Walz.

The subpoena requests any emails between Walz and the Minnesota agencies administering the aid that Foxx said would show “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 information about the fraud scheme from the Minnesota Department of Education in November 2023 and in June. In August, Walz became Kamala Harris’ running mate ― and a much juicier target for Republican oversight.

“This was an appalling abuse of a federal COVID-era program,” a spokeswoman for Walz said in an email 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 greatly expanded social programs and authorized hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to businesses in order to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from wrecking the U.S. economy in 2020. One of the major changes allowed states to distribute free school lunches to kids regardless of whether they were poor enough to qualify and even while many schools were closed during the summer of 2020.

People affiliated with Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that Minnesota hired to distribute food, instead used the funds to spend lavishly on themselves, according to prosecutors, such as by purchasing cars and even summer homes overseas.

Nobody in the Minnesota government has been charged with wrongdoing, but an audit by the state legislature faulted the Minnesota Department of Education for ignoring red flags about Feeding Our Future’s grant applications and program operations. The audit said that the department asked the FBI to investigate in April 2021 and that the FBI opened its investigation the following month.

Walz responded to the audit when it came out in June, clarifying that no state officials were charged with wrongdoing.

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

After pandemic aid expired, Walz was one of several Democratic governors who signed into law universal free school meals. It is one of Walz’s best-known achievements as governor.