Michigan National Guardsmen in charge continue to protect the US Capitol has said they will be getting food that is “undercooked, raw, moldy, and even filled with metal shavings,” said a letter from the state house delegation obtained by CBS News on Tuesday. Some guards have been hospitalized after eating the food, the letter said.
“It is clear that these contracted meals are poorly prepared, often inedible and very inadequate to support our soldiers,” said the 14 lawmakers in the letter sent to the chief of the Pentagon National Guard. “It is completely unacceptable that our men and women serving in Washington, DC, are hospitalized because of the food they are given.”
The letter asks that the National Guard terminate its contract with its current food supplier and find a new supplier or provide the guards with a daily allowance for the remainder of their time in the Capitol.
In his own letter, Michigan Senator Gary Peters said the guards were given “chicken with the feathers still attached and raw ground beef.” As a result, he said, the 983 state National Guard still protecting the Capitol were often forced to buy food with their own money.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said he was unaware of the reports when asked Tuesday, but said the Pentagon is committed to ensuring that all guards receive “the support they deserve.” The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Facebook Live broadcast on Tuesday night, Representative Bill Huizenga – one of the signers of the House’s letter – said he’d been fighting to provide the guards with enough food for weeks after concerned friends and family members called his office. He said there were issues with ‘freshness’ and ‘cases of mold and other bugs in the food’. He also said guards were given raw and undercooked food.
Huizenga, a Republican, said he thought the problem was solved. But in recent days, he said, he has been receiving reports of metal shavings in food – possibly from steel wool – and more cases of raw, undercooked and “inedible” food.
“That’s not acceptable. It’s not acceptable at all,” he said.
About one-fifth of the National Guard troops still operating within the Capitol’s perimeter are from Michigan, CBS affiliate WUSA9 reported. All National Guard troops will leave the Capitol by March 12, the outlet said.
This isn’t the first time lawmakers have objected to the treatment of guards in the Capitol. Lawmakers arrived at the end of January outrage after guards were asked to leave the Capitol and instead rest in a parking garage during their shifts. The guards were allowed back inside quickly.
Eleanor Watson contributed to the reporting.