Food stamps: Joni Ernst announces bill regarding nearly $1 billion in ‘ineligible’ SNAP payments

Sen. Joni Ernst‘s (R-IA) latest bill is seeking to reduce $1 billion in federal spending by targeting states that dole out ineligible Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

Ernst is introducing the “Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments Act” on Tuesday, which draws attention to nearly $1 billion in “ineligible benefits” being sent out every month despite tens of thousands of families waiting to be approved for SNAP. The bill is part of her monthly efforts to “cut the pork” in Washington, D.C.

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Seven states (Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, and Mississippi) have also “intentionally manipulated” the amount of SNAP payments being made to residents to “collect $60 million in unearned performance bonuses,” Ernst said in a press release provided to the Washington Examiner ahead of the bill’s announcement.

“Families across the country are going hungry while bureaucrats are jumping the line to gobble up SNAP dollars, either as a meal ticket to beef up state budgets or a self-serve buffet of benefits for themselves or others who do not qualify,” Ernst said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “I’m snapping back! It’s time for states at fault to pay the piper and eat the costs of their taxpayer waste. Instead of overserving bureaucrats, let’s end the waste and set a place at the table for hungry families.”

The Department of Agriculture reported in June that states had an overpayment error rate of 9.84%. In 2022, there were approximately $11.2 billion reported in overpayments, but the exact number is unknown because the USDA excludes errors totaling $54 or less.

The “Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments Act” would require all errors, regardless of amount, to be counted. The bill will direct state governments to recollect SNAP overpayments “so each household only receives exactly what they are eligible for,” and it also requires states to pay back what they owe and be held accountable for payment errors.

The bill is the latest component of Ernst’s monthly “Make ‘Em Squeal” campaign, in which she sends out a monthly “Squeal Award.” The Iowa junior senator gave her September 2023 Squeal Award to the “bureaucrats dispersing billions of dollars of bogus benefits, either to themselves or others who do not qualify.”

“With tens of thousands of families across the country waiting in a bureaucratic backlog to be approved for the aid, some of the administrators of the program are jumping the line to snap up the SNAP dollars, either as a meal ticket to beef up state budgets or a self-serve buffet of benefits for themselves!” Ernst wrote in her “Squeal Award” announcement provided to the Washington Examiner.

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The Iowa senator pointed to several different instances of SNAP mismanagement, including when a Wisconsin Department of Health Services employee stole the identities of homeless people to register SNAP cards for his own personal shopping expenses.

“Folks, you don’t get to make errors like this when you are calculating your taxes, so they shouldn’t be tolerated by those spending your taxes! Instead of giving billions in benefits to those who don’t qualify or doubling payments for others already being served, let’s set a place at the table for the families who do qualify but are going without while they wait in line,” Ernst said.