On July 24, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry held a hearing to review the operations of the Food Stamp program, recently renewed in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-171), known as the Farm bill.
The bill was designed to improve the Food Stamp program by streamlining administration, expanding coverage for groups such as legal immigrants, and reducing payment errors and fraud. Established in 1961, the Food Stamp program is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with state and local agencies.
Chair Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) acknowledged the success of the program, but expressed concern that “over and underpayments remain too high.” He also said that the “FNS and Inspector General must continue to monitor and police” the online electronic benefits transfer service (EBT) to minimize fraud.
Ranking Member Calvin Dooley (D-CA) mentioned the need for cooperation between the states and the Department of Agriculture. “This needs to be a partnership,” he said.
Eric Bost of the Department of Agriculture highlighted accomplishments of the FNS since 2002: training for 160 state staff, regional conferences focused on new simplified options, and a payment error rate of 8.26%, the “lowest in the program’s history.” He pointed out that 80% of food stamp benefits go to households with children. Mr. Bost agreed that states’ payment error rates are too high. He explained that, currently, states must have “three consecutive years of poor performance before being required to pay” the federal government, and suggested changing the time period to two years. He added, “In my professional opinion, we are going to see error rates rise.”
When asked why some eligible recipients of food stamps do not receive them, Mr. Bost answered frankly, “Some people don’t know they’re eligible, some feel applying is too much hassle, and some just want to walk in an office and say ‘give me food stamps’ – they don’t want to apply.”
The hearing ended early due to a lengthy series of votes on the House floor. The written testimony of the second witness, Phyllis Fong of the Department of Agriculture Inspector General’s Office, noted that the Food Stamp program “is working reasonably well,” but stated that the FNS should “continue to work with states” to reduce error rates and fraud. In addition, all states should switch to an electronic benefits transfer system as soon as possible.
