The government cannot be sure that food stamp money is dispensed properly because states obscured their payment errors in pursuit of USDA bonuses for efficient operations, said Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts. “Simply put, no one knows the error rate of (food stamps) and that is unacceptable,” said Roberts.
Food stamps, formally named the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is the largest U.S. antihunger program. Over the past four years, it has helped an average 46 million poor people annually buy food at at a yearly cost of $71 billion. States report each year on over- and under-payment of benefits, helping USDA to compile a national error rate that indicates if the program is issuing the correct amounts to recipients.
The USDA has not issued a national error rate since 2014 because of doubts about the reliability of information provided by the states. It says only nine states provided valid error rates in 2015 and has ordered the rest to remove “bias” from their reporting.
At a farm bill hearing, Assistant Inspector General Gil Harden said USDA bonuses of $48 million a year, intended as a reward for improved stewardship of the food stamp program, perversely encouraged states to conceal their shortcomings. The Justice Department opened an investigation in 2015 of 20 states that hired a consultant who allegedly coached workers on improper methods to reduce error rates; Virginia and Wisconsin have paid the government $14 million in false claims cases.
“We are talking about states cheating and gaming the system, resulting in an inability to even measure how many taxpayer dollars are being spent in error,” said Roberts, who repeatedly praised food stamps as a valuable and good program but also toyed with the implications of high error rates.
In 2014, USDA reported an error rate of 3.66 percent, equating to $2.6 billion in payments that were too large or too small. A 5 percent error rate would be $3.6 billion, and a 10 percent rate would be $7.5 billion based on recent annual costs for food stamps, said Roberts. “This is a major problem. We’re talking an awful lot of money. That’s not acceptable.”
Democratic senators stressed the issue was administrative manipulation of data, rather than abuse by food stamp recipients. “Our families deserve a reliable safety net in times of need,” said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who spoke against “arbitrary cuts to push people off of SNAP.” The lead Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, Stabenow said she was interested in ways to strengthen the quality control system used by USDA to oversee state operation of food stamps and compile error rates.
Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, a Republican, said elimination of the state bonuses would be a step toward reform. The inspector general’s office recommended, among 19 steps, elimination of the two-tier system traditionally used to determine error rates. The USDA official overseeing food stamps, Brandon Lipps, said it would take a year for USDA to decide whether to drop the two-tier format. None of the USDA witnesses said legislative action was needed.
After the hearing, Roberts said he would like action “as soon as we can” on the 2018 farm bill and also noted the Senate has a jam-packed agenda this fall. “I’m trying to point out this is not the time for a revolutionary farm bill,” said the Kansas Republican.
To watch a video of the hearing or read written testimony by witnesses, click here.