U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) joined several of his Republican colleagues in chastising U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack for his lack of responsiveness to their questions regarding fraud around federal nutrition programs.
“Secretary Vilsack’s woefully inadequate response to our previous inquiry makes it clear that the USDA is uninterested in addressing this fraud,” Rep. Emmer said. “The buck stops here: Minnesotans want answers about how their tax dollars were allowed to be stolen at the expense of kids and families. It’s time for this issue to be addressed with the seriousness it deserves.”
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota-based non-profit organization participating in the Federal Child Nutrition Programs, defrauded the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service of over $250 million. Sixty people have been charged and a total of 10 people have pleaded guilty, according to a July 20 letter Rep. Emmer and his colleagues sent to Vilsack.
“It is unclear how the USDA and its partnering state agency, the Minnesota Department of Education, failed to discern this fraud — described as the ‘largest pandemic fraud in the United States’ — earlier in the grant cycle,” they wrote. “Millions of taxpayer funds were stolen at the expense of hungry children in the state.”
Among the six other members who joined Rep. Emmer in signing the letter were U.S. Reps. Pete Stauber (R-MN) and Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
The lawmakers requested that Vilsack provide all USDA documents and communications related to Feeding Our Future, any USDA inspection or audit of any records associated with Feeding Our Future, and a copy of any relevant USDA policy relating to the authority of USDA officials, employees, agents, or contractors or state partner agencies to respond to and prevent potential fraud or improper conduct, among other items, according to their letter.
Rep. Emmer and his colleagues also requested that the information be provided to them within two weeks of the date of the letter, which follows an earlier request they made in September 2022 that they noted received an inadequate response.
“Know that should you fail to respond fully or timely to this letter, we intend to take further action to obtain the documents and communications,” they wrote.