Rep. Ilhan Omar ignored a Minnesota legislative committee's deadline to turn over documents related to the massive Feeding Our Future fraud case, and a vote to compel her testimony fell one vote short of the two-thirds threshold needed to issue a subpoena.

The failed vote Tuesday leaves state lawmakers without a clear enforcement mechanism to force the Democratic congresswoman to answer questions about her role in a federal child nutrition program that prosecutors say was exploited to steal hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, who chairs the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, told Fox News Digital the committee had tried repeatedly to get Omar's cooperation. Five of the six votes needed backed the subpoena. It wasn't enough.

Omar 'ghosted' the committee

Robbins did not mince words about Omar's refusal to engage. She said the congresswoman had "ghosted" the committee last month by failing to appear at a hearing focused on the MEALS Act, the 2020 federal COVID-19 relief measure Omar sponsored that Republicans say stripped safeguards from the federal school nutrition program.

In a written request to Omar, Robbins laid out what the committee wanted:

"Minnesotans and the Members of the House Fraud Prevention & State Oversight Committee were disappointed that you failed to appear before our committee to answer questions."

The committee asked Omar to turn over emails, texts, and meeting records showing how she promoted expanded access to federal child nutrition programs. It also sought all communications with the Minnesota Department of Education and with constituents, as well as records tied to a Somali-language TV appearance in which Omar highlighted Safari Restaurant as a meal distribution site.

That detail matters. Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis was later identified by prosecutors as a major participant in the Feeding Our Future scheme tied to more than $250 million in alleged fraud, as Just The News reported. At the hearing Omar skipped, lawmakers played a 2020 video of her praising the restaurant to Somali constituents.

The committee also sought records of any contact between Omar and individuals charged or implicated in the case, including Aimee Bock, the Feeding Our Future executive director whose home and offices were raided by the FBI in early 2022, along with dozens of alleged co-conspirators.

Omar's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. The May 5 deadline passed without a reply from the congresswoman.

The MEALS Act and the fraud it enabled

The core of the Republican case is straightforward. Omar sponsored the MEALS Act in March 2020. The legislation expanded access for nonschool-based food distributors to receive federal meal reimbursements during the pandemic. Robbins and other GOP lawmakers argue those changes removed the guardrails that had kept the program from being looted.

Robbins framed it bluntly:

"We have endeavored in multiple ways to get access to [information] because, as everyone knows, Representative Omar had had some role, whether inadvertent or not. She passed the MEALS Act in March of 2020, and that took the guardrails off the federal school nutrition program, which created the conditions for [fraud]."

The Washington Examiner reported that the committee accused Omar of helping create the conditions for the scandal through her sponsorship of the legislation. Robbins told the Examiner that understanding Omar's role "is important in the history of understanding this case."

The broader scrutiny of Omar's finances and conduct has only intensified in recent months. Vice President JD Vance has publicly stated his belief that Omar committed immigration fraud, adding federal-level pressure to the state-level investigation.

Feeding Our Future's partners were accused of defrauding the federal government of millions of dollars. The FBI raided the nonprofit's offices in St. Anthony, Minnesota, and Bock's home in January 2022. What followed was one of the largest pandemic-era fraud prosecutions in the country.

Robbins eyes Congress as next step

With the subpoena vote dead and the committee's official hearings winding down, Robbins signaled she isn't giving up. She told Fox News Digital that she plans to reach out to congressional allies who could issue their own subpoena, since Omar, as a member of Congress, falls under federal jurisdiction.

"But I'll certainly talk to our friends in Congress to see if they would be willing to issue a subpoena. I don't know if they are, but they would have the same authority and it's still relevant to them because it's a federal program that's been swindled. So I don't know if they would be willing to do it, but it's worth asking."

She acknowledged the challenge. Congressional investigators already have a full plate.

"They have so many investigations going on, I don't know where this falls on the priority list."

Robbins also noted that the federal government has a "whole menu of legal options" available because Omar holds a congressional seat. But whether anyone in Washington will pick up the baton remains an open question.

The House Oversight Committee has already opened a separate probe into Omar's husband and his companies, which reportedly surged from $51,000 to $30 million in a single year, a trajectory that drew its own round of congressional scrutiny.

Hundreds of whistleblower reports keep coming

Robbins stressed that Omar's refusal to cooperate is just one thread in a much larger investigation. The committee has received hundreds of whistleblower reports, with new ones arriving weekly.

"I do think the subpoena is important. This is one of dozens, if not hundreds of things we are investigating. We have had hundreds of whistleblower reports. They continue to come in weekly."

Even without official hearings, Robbins said the work would continue. "Even though the committee will no longer have official hearings we will continue to investigate these whistleblower reports and webs of fraud," she stated.

Omar's financial disclosures have drawn separate scrutiny as well. She recently attributed a massive discrepancy in her reported net worth to an accounting error, claiming the figure was inflated from under $95,000 to $30 million, an explanation that satisfied few of her critics.

Robbins described the committee's prospects of forcing Omar's hand at the state level as "fading." But she made clear the investigation itself is not.

After the vote, Robbins posted on X with a summary that captured the committee's frustration:

"It's the same story every time. Fraud is committed, information is suppressed, and the dysfunction continues."

Rep. Walter Hudson, another Minnesota Republican, discussed Omar's deadline and the broader fraud investigation on "The Will Cain Show," keeping the issue in the national conversation even as the state-level subpoena effort stalled.

Meanwhile, the international dimensions of Omar's legal exposure have grown. Somaliland reportedly offered to host her prosecution after Vance confirmed evidence of immigration fraud, a development that, whatever its practical likelihood, signals how far the cloud of suspicion now extends.

What comes next

The immediate facts are these: a state committee asked a sitting congresswoman to explain her connections to one of the largest pandemic fraud cases in American history. She refused to show up. She refused to send documents. She refused to answer questions. And when the committee tried to compel her, the vote came up one short.

The committee sought communications with people charged in the case. It sought records about a restaurant Omar publicly promoted that prosecutors later tied to a quarter-billion-dollar fraud. It sought evidence of how the MEALS Act was crafted and promoted. Omar provided none of it.

Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's office for comment. No response was reported.

Taxpayers funded the programs that were looted. They deserve answers. So far, the congresswoman from Minnesota's Fifth District has decided they can wait.