The Biden-Harris administration is under fire from Native-American and agriculture groups for repeating a food shortage fiasco that also occurred during the Obama-Biden administration.
The United States Department of Agriculture met with tribal leaders earlier this year and said they were switching to a single warehouse and sole contractor. Native leaders, concerned about a repeat of 2014, protested but USDA went ahead and food shortages, canceled food deliveries, and deliveries of expired products occurred starting in April.
Stacy Dean, Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for the Federal Nutrition Program
Secretary Tom Vilsack recently testified they were not aware of that until August. He was also in charge when USDA didn't know about the problems they caused for natives in 2014. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson notes that 770,000 of America's most vulnerable people using USDA’s Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations and Commodity Supplemental Food Program were at risk. Stacy Dean, who ran the Food and Nutrition Service as Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for the Federal Nutrition Program, resigned after it occurred but before the issue was exposed so it is unclear if they are linked but the committee notes that these actions defy both the mission of FNS and the Biden administration's Equity Action Plan. Dean was also implicated in the Biden administration's baby formula shortage fiasco.
