Rep. Barry Moore introduces legislation to enhance SNAP fraud detection
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Barry Moore (AL-02) introduced legislation to strengthen Congressional oversight of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service. USDA is proposing a new rule to administratively codify phone interviews as the primary method of identity verification when auditing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit recipients for fraud – they’re attempting to remove the “human” from human services.
“The nutrition title consumes more than 80 percent of the Farm Bill's mandatory baseline spending," said Moore. "At a time when the United States is nearly $34 trillion in debt and the farm gate is in trouble, producers and taxpayers deserve real oversight of SNAP to ensure their money and resources are not being misused -- this requires far more than a phone call."
This recently proposed rule highlights the need for congressional oversight on entitlement programs. Specifically, this legislation will:
- Require the Secretary of Agriculture to provide notice and a comment period for any new or updated quality control guidance at FNS, and
- Apply to any proposed guidance which require changes to systems, procedure and department staffing relating to quality control and identity verification requirements for SNAP benefits.
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