(Washington, D-C; Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and Iowa Representative Randy Feenstra, both Republicans, have introduced matching bills aimed at reducing over-payments 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 over-payments.

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 over-payments,” she 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. The 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.”

(Photo by Lance Cheung/USDA)

“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 over-payments.”  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.  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 over-payments. “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 over-payments 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.

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. 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.