South Carolina – A South Carolina congresswoman wants to make a big change to how food stamp benefits are handled. She says that tighter identity checks are needed to halt massive fraud and better protect taxpayer cash.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace believes that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is being misused more and more, which is a costly problem that takes resources away from people who need the help to feed their families.
According to Mace, federal estimates reveal that more than $102 million in food stamp benefits were stolen across the country in only the first four months of this year. She says that the existing system, which lets people buy things with a personal identification number, is too easy to take advantage of.
Mace said that fraud happens a lot when cardholders give or sell their PINs, which lets others who shouldn’t be able to utilize benefits do so.
Mace thinks that cutting down on fraud might assist the program and make benefits work better for people who really need them at a time when grocery prices and other household costs are still going up.
“The cost of living has risen and one of the things that we can do to, I think, help people is reduce spending in government, reducing fraud that frees up resources for those who need them most,” Mace said according to WCCB.
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Mace has come up with the Food Assistance Integrity and Responsibility Act, or FAIR Act, to fix the situation. The proposal would require Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to have a photo ID, like a driver’s license or other ID. The plan says that people who get benefits would have to produce the card at checkout to prove that they are allowed to use them.
People who support the measure claim that the extra verification could cut down on fraud by making it difficult to use benefits that were stolen or sold illegally. Mace has said that states could lose money if they don’t do anything. She believes that if there is a lot of fraud, the federal government could fine South Carolina hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and taxes. This money would have gone to public services.
Some people, on the other hand, say that mandating photo ID could make things worse for people who are already at risk. Some policy experts and advocacy groups are worried that older people, individuals with disabilities, or others who don’t have easy access to updated ID would have to wait longer or lose access to food assistance. Some others are concerned that the shift could make low-income families feel bad about themselves or make grocery shopping more difficult.
Mace has claimed that the FAIR Act is meant to deal with those issues. The bill has provisions for adjustments, like giving extra cards to houses where more than one person, including caretakers, regularly spends for food.
It also says that people with impairments who may need help using their benefits should be able to be flexible. If the legislation passes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would have 18 months to figure out how to put the new rules into effect across the country.
“The way the administration is going to penalize states for the amount of fraud that they have, South Carolina is going to hundreds of millions of dollars to the federal government and fees and fines, etcetera,” Congresswoman Mace said.
The bill was presented in early December and sent to the House Committee on Agriculture, where it will be discussed along with other bills that affect SNAP and government nutrition programs. Its future is still unclear, but it contributes to a larger national discourse about how to handle food assistance during tough economic times.
That conversation has also grown to include issues of nutrition and public health, in addition to fighting fraud. South Carolina is one of several states that have recently limited what SNAP benefits can be used to buy, especially sugary snacks and drinks. States can limit some high-sugar or extensively processed foods through a federal waiver procedure. Supporters argue this measure encourages healthier choices and lowers long-term health expenditures.
Supporters of those adjustments to SNAP say that the program should focus on foods that are higher in nutrients, especially since obesity and diet-related disorders continue to be big problems. Federal officials have seen that more and more states are interested in combining stricter control with rewards for healthier shopping habits.
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The push for photo ID verification and the plan to limit some purchases show that the government is becoming more rigorous about how it runs the country’s largest food assistance program. While politicians think about these ideas, the argument continues over how to keep SNAP a solid lifeline for millions of Americans while also preventing fraud, making it easier for people to get it, and protecting public health.
