(Photo by Lance Cheung/USDA)
Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Randy Feenstra, both Republicans from Iowa, introduced matching bills aimed at reducing overpayments made to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, but Iowa advocates say the bills won’t be effective at reducing payment errors.
The bills, titled Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments Act, state they would “improve the calculation and reduce the taxpayer cost of payment errors” for SNAP.
A press release from Ernst said the act could reduce spending by nearly $91 billion over the next decade by requiring all payment errors be reported and holding states and recipients accountable for overpayments.
According to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, improper SNAP payments totaled approximately $10.5 billion nationwide in 2023.
Across all government agencies, the report estimates $238 billion of improper payments were made in 2023.
SNAP was singled out in a report because its rate of improper payments, at 11.7% in 2023, exceeded 10%.
Ernst said errors like this are contributing to the nation’s $36 trillion debt.
“SNAP plays an essential role in helping feed families, that’s why we need to strengthen its integrity by holding states accountable for growing error rates, implementing a zero-tolerance policy, and snapping back overpayments,” Ernst said in a statement.
The act would require states to pay back what they owe from payment errors and it would require all errors to be reported, as opposed to the current rule which only requires reports on payment errors in excess of $54.
This figure was increased in 2022 when officials undertook a serious update to the Thrifty Food Plan, which sets the purchasing power of SNAP, and increased overall SNAP benefits by 21%.
Feenstra said there was “no time to waste” to save taxpayer dollars and “hold bureaucrats accountable.”
Feenstra and Ernst both serve on their respective Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, caucuses. Feenstra said in a statement on the bill that President Donald Trump and Republican majorities were “elected to cut waste from the government.”
“One sector that needs serious reform is the SNAP program,” Feenstra said. “That’s why Senator Ernst and I introduced legislation to strengthen the integrity of the SNAP program by establishing a zero-tolerance policy on benefit overpayments.”
Both members of Congress introduced bills of the same title in 2023.
Luke Elzinga, policy and advocacy director for Des Moines Area Religious Council and chair of Iowa Hunger Coalition, said the bills from Ernst and Feenstra, if passed, would increase Iowa’s error rate and slow down application processing timelines.
“Reducing the error rate is a good thing that everything wants, but I think the bills introduced by Senator Ernst and Representative Feenstra are the wrong way to go about it,” Elzinga said.
Elzinga said the states have a balancing act between getting SNAP applications processed quickly, and processing them accurately.
“If states are being told that literally, $1 is going to increase that error rate, they are going to be scrutinizing every single thing,” Elzinga said. “We’re going to be spending way more time on applications … and we’re going to fall out of compliance on application processing timeliness.”
Recipients must be able to participate in the program within 30 days of submitting a typical application in order to meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s timeliness requirements. Currently, Iowa’s timeliness rate is 77%.
Elzinga stressed that SNAP payment errors can occur for a number of reasons and are inadvertent errors from either the person applying or the agency processing the application. The error rate is affected by both underpayments and overpayments.
“The payment error rate is not fraud,” Elzinga said.
According to the GAO report, most of these errors in 2023 occurred because agencies failed to verify certain criteria, like income, household size, education, or employment.
Benefit recipients are also required to reimburse the state for any overpayments they receive, and likewise the state reimburses recipients for underpayments.
In 2023, Iowa’s error rate was 5%, putting it at less than half the national average.
That’s an improvement for the state, which was issued a $1.8 million USDA fine in 2019 for its high payment error rate of 10% in 2018.
Following the fine, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services focused on increasing efficiency and accuracy in the application process through a business process redesign.
Alex Murphy, the director of communications for Iowa HHS said in an emailed statement the department is “proud” of the work it has done to “drastically reduce” the SNAP payment error rate.
“Iowa HHS closely monitors both processing timeliness and accuracy of SNAP applications to ensure we are providing benefits as quickly and accurately as possible,” Murphy said. “Iowa HHS is also committed to ensuring the integrity of SNAP benefits, while also improving efficiencies and providing the nutritional assistance to those in need.”
An Iowa Hunger Coalition report from July 2024 applauded the department’s work in significantly lowering the rate. Elzinga said Iowa’s improvements over the past several years show the effectiveness of the current quality control programs.
“I would rather see investments in workforce and technology that are going to address some of these structural issues that might be causing payment errors,” Elzinga said. “If Ernst and Feenstra wanted to hold up Iowa as an example of a state that was doing poorly and turned it around, they should be doing that.”
Elzinga, and the Iowa Hunger Coalition report, noted that updated technology and expanded workforce would help to improve both accuracy and timeliness of processing SNAP applications.
This article has been updated to include comment from Iowa HHS.
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