Rep. Omar is center stage in massive Minnesota fraud scandal for her support of abused programs

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was at the forefront of expanding federal funding for pandemic-era food and childcare programs. Those programs are now at the center of fraud allegations among the Somali immigrant community in her home state.

Omar, who represents a congressional district with a sizable Somali population in Minneapolis, championed the MEALS Act in 2020 at the height of the pandemic and offered an amendment that would allow the federal government the ability to grant waivers to state governments for increased costs.