Standing in the checkout lines or in virtual lines at Sam’s Clubs in metro Detroit, criminals are spending government benefits stolen from people more than 2,000 miles away in California.
On May 24, three people – Travis Newby, 39, of Detroit, Derriun Williams, 23, of Detroit, and Vanessa Williams, 47, of Highland Park – were arrested and arraigned on felony charges.
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Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers are spearheading legislation to curb food-stamp fraud by limiting the balances recipients can accumulate.
Representative Ann Flood (R-Pen Argyl) is drafting a bill requiring the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) to request a federal waiver allowing the commonwealth to cap the benefits a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) user can amass. Kerry Beninghoff (R-Bellefonte) has meanwhile begun preparing a resolution asking the Biden administration to set such limits itself. Currently, the federally funded but state administered entitlement does not require those who draw SNAP benefits to spend them in order to remain eligible for them.
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Two Pennsylvania state Senators from opposite sides of the aisle are asking colleagues to support legislation they are drafting to create a state earned income tax credit (EITC).
For nearly a half-century, lower-wage workers have benefitted from a federal EITC which ranges from $560 to $6,935 for a household earning up to $59,187, depending on the number of that filer’s qualifying children. In 2021, this program bestowed $1,874 on the average Pennsylvania family.
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Nationwide, electronic benefits transfer fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers up to $4.7 billion annually, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In 2022, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program distributed over $113.7 billion to nearly 22 million households.
The federal government entrusts states to reduce fraud in safety net programs. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told all 50 states to plan to fight EBT skimmer fraud, which happens when bad actors install a card reader on top of a legitimate point of sale at a retail store.
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TennCare currently has $1.1 billion in its reserves and expects it to cost $500 million of those reserves over the next year as it redetermines Medicaid eligibility for those additional 500,000 members who joined the plan over the past three years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, states were not allowed to remove those who are no longer eligible for the program as previous. Starting on April 1, states must start that redetermination process and will have a year to complete it.
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Governor Mike DeWine (R) on Friday announced a plan to expand a number of social services in Ohio, including an increase in eligibility for Medicaid for pregnant women and children whose families make up to three times the federal poverty level.
The policy enlarges upon his Bold Beginning Initiative, which has already spent about $1 billion on services to expectant families. The broadening of Medicaid would make the program available to single expectant mothers earning up to $54,930 annually and to families of three earning as much as $69,090 per year. Legislative approval would need to occur for this measure to take effect.
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Several prominent Democratic campaign groups accessed Republican voter data as a result of what Snap, the owner of Snapchat, called an unintentional data leak, allowing those groups to optimize midterm ads, Axios reported.
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Spending on food stamps has increased by $53.5 billion – an 89% increase – in the two pandemic years. By comparison, that’s how much the entire program cost in 2009 during the Great Recession.
Spending on the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program grew 88.5% from $60.3 billion in 2019 to $113.8 billion in 2021. Spending on the SNAP program had previously peaked at $79.8 billion in 2013 before declining for the next six years.
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A recent administrative action has permanently increased benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by 25 percent. Unfortunately, this historic boost fails to address the structural problems that plague this nearly 60-year-old program.
The official Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) webpage proudly proclaims that, “SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food…”
To that admirable end, the program formerly known as food stamps distributed $79 billion to 40 million people last year. Yet this desire to provide wholesome food to needy families conflicts with clear evidence that wholesome food is not what they think they need. Whether they play by the rules or not, people receiving SNAP benefits currently spend between 70-100 percent of that benefit on things other than healthy food.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) this week voted for a seven-bill “minibus” that he said increases spending for several government social programs. The bill increases spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and other school nutrition programs. Cohen said in a press release that the money also increases spending on the Small Business Administration, consumer protection agencies, veterans affairs and veterans medical services.
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Virginians who receive food stamps will continue to be eligible for higher pandemic-era benefits through June, the Virginia Department of Social Services announced.
Families receiving food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will see additional benefits automatically loaded onto their EBT cards. The funds will be added n June 16.
A household of one will be eligible for up to $234 monthly while the emergency funding continues. A family of two could receive up to $430, a family of three up to $616 and a family of four up to $782. The funding gradually increases for every additional member of a family.
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Stafford County is sending some extra cash to its 3,900 Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in the form of $150 worth of restaurant vouchers to one of 100 local restaurants. County Board of Supervisors Chair Meg Bohmke said the nearly $800,000 program is the first part of the Stafford Cares initiative, a series of programs aimed at helping the county recover physically, mentally, and financially from COVID-19.
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The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday blocked a Trump administration change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could have removed eligibility for almost 700,000 unemployed, able-bodied Americans.
A lawsuit filed in January by a multistate coalition alleged a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule wrongly reversed a decades-old policy that allowed states to waive SNAP work requirements. The previous rules granted waivers for larger geographic areas by lumping certain regions with lower unemployment with locations registering higher unemployment, as well as carryover unused exemptions.
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Many of the costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t easily visible, such as Michigan’s 2,000 COVID-19 nursing home residents’ deaths, the increasing number of opioid overdoses, and the bankrupted businesses due to government-mandated restrictions and less consumer demand.
More than 2 million people lost their jobs within months after Michigan’s first case of the virus, pushing hundreds of thousands of people onto federally bankrolled food assistance programs, spiking costs by nearly $60 million over two months.
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The Trump administration officially implemented its public charge rule for foreign nationals seeking permanent status, following two key victories in the nation’s highest court.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday put into effect the administration’s new public charge rule, which takes into account a foreign national’s past use of taxpayer-funded benefits when determining whether that individual qualifies for a green card. The rule, which the White House first introduced in 2019, survived a lawsuit that reached all the way to the Supreme Court.
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The U.S. House Committee on Oversight is holding hearings to analyze the Trump administration’s rule change designed to end automatic eligibility to the federal food stamp program for recipients of another federal welfare program.
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The Supreme Court Monday allowed the Trump administration to enforce a new rule that will deny green cards to foreign nationals who use taxpayer-funded social services, lifting lower court injunctions that blocked the change.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined 15 attorneys general and New York City in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.
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Long-awaited changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) being unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Trump administration are once again making obtaining work a key emphasis of the program by conforming to statutory requirements that single, work capable people with no dependents between the ages of 18 and 49 are required to work in order to qualify for benefits.
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U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, overseeing the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, said Friday he supports new federal food stamp rules formalized by U.S. Republican President Donald Trump.
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Nearly 700,000 Americans will lose their access to federal food stamps under new rules formalized by the Trump administration, the Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday.
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The number of households receiving federal benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, is at its lowest level in nine years, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program.
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by Whitney Tipton The United States Department of Agriculture proposed Monday eliminating a loophole in food stamp eligibility requirements that would cut 3.1 million people from the program and save $2.5 billion. Those who receive temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) will not longer be automatically eligible to get…
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A Minnesota state senator wants to tighten the rules on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after a local millionaire, in full compliance with the law, collected food stamps for more than a year. Rob Undersander was on Fox Business Thursday to explain how he pulled it off, noting…
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U.S. Rep. Dr. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) on Tuesday introduced a bill to give Medicaid recipients more choice and power in their healthcare decisions. The Medicaid Improvement and State Flexibility Act would authorize states to begin pilot programs giving Medicaid recipients a “swipe card” with dollars on it designated…
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Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) was joined by a large cohort of bipartisan lawmakers, top administrative officials, and local faith leaders Tuesday to discuss the impact of the partial government shutdown on Minnesota. According to Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans, the state receives roughly $1 billion in federal funding…
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At the end of the month, food stamp benefits will run out for 38.6 million recipients on account of the partial government shutdown. Right now, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is being funded with previously appropriated dollars, but in February that will change as the Department of Agriculture remains unfunded…
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by Tim Pearce The Trump administration is proposing to limit states’ ability to exempt welfare recipients of abiding by the work requirements in the U.S. food stamp program, the Department of Agriculture announced Thursday. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is pushing the reform to cut down on abuse within the…
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U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said in a press release Wednesday he voted for the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. The House-Senate agreement sets national agriculture policy for the next five years, and President Donald Trump will likely sign it, DesJarlais said. DesJarlais,…
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by Robert Romano The conference committee for H.R. 2, the farm bill, has stripped out its additional work requirements as a condition for collecting food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The provision would have required able-bodied adults to work a minimum of 20 hours a week…
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President Trump’s proposal to cut food stamp funding has drawn howls of protest but supporters say critics are overreacting. The cuts are part of Trump’s budget plan for the 2018 fiscal year. Titled “A New Foundation For American Greatness”, the plan was presented to Congress on Tuesday. The plan also calls…
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