by Jim Abrams
WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department says
it is going to impose tougher penalties on stores that violate food stamp rules
and give states new tools to root out applicants who are ineligible for the
benefit program that now covers about 1 out of every 7 Americans.
The move to shore up integrity in the program
comes as Congress struggles to pass a $100billion-a-year bill that will fund
food stamps and determine farm policy for the next five years. Some 80percent
of the money in the farm and nutrition bill goes to the food stamp program.
Department Undersecretary Kevin Concannon
stressed that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program already has one of
the best track records among federal programs in fighting violations, with a
trafficking or abuse rate of only about 1percent of total transactions.
But in a program where even a small amount of
abuse can amount to millions of dollars, "we are very mindful of public
confidence" that only those who qualify for benefits will receive them, he
said. That confidence is particularly important now because of growing pressure
on Congress to pass a farm bill that includes the food stamp and other
nutrition programs.
The farm bill, which sets policy on crop
subsidies and conservation, has made it through Congress in the past because
the link with food stamps has made it popular for lawmakers with both rural and
urban constituents. With the bill set to expire, the Senate passed a new bill
and the House Agriculture Committee approved a similar version.
But House GOP leaders have declined to bring
the bill to the floor for a vote, fearing that disputes over food stamps would
lead to its defeat. The House bill would cut current food stamp spending by about
2percent, or $1.6billion, a year, mainly by cracking down on policies making it
easier for states to bestow benefits. But House conservatives are demanding
further cuts in the program while some Democrats say they are excessive,
resulting in several million people being removed from food stamp rolls. The
farm bill reduced food stamp spending by about $400million a year.
The food stamp program has seen participation
climb from 28million at the start of the recession to 46million today and has
become a focus of fiscally conservative lawmakers critical of government
spending.
The new sanctions announced by the
Agriculture Department on Thursday would allow the department to both
disqualify a retailer who traffics and assess a monetary fine proportional to the
amount of business the store does with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program. Currently the department cannot do both and too often the penalties
"may have been viewed as a slap on the wrist," Concannon said.
States would also be required to check a
database to verify that applicants haven't been disqualified in other states
and confirm from Social Security Administration records that the applicant is
not in jail or deceased.
The Agriculture Department says that the
trafficking rate has fallen from about 4cents to the dollar in 1993 to about
1cent in the 2006-2008 period and that in 2010 only 3percent of payments went
to ineligible households or to eligible households in excessive amounts.
Concannon said that in the third quarter of
this budget year the department fined or temporarily disqualified some 574
stores for violating rules and permanently disqualified 1,016 stores for
trafficking in benefits.
The department has also sent letters to the
heads of Craigslist, Ebay, Facebook and Twitter to seek their help in
preventing the illegal sale of food stamps online and proposed rules giving
states the option to contact recipients when there have been an excessive
number of requests for electronic benefit transfer cards.
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