When in doubt, blame COVID.
That’s a big takeaway from the state’s response to revelations of fraud in the Massachusetts SNAP program.
As the Herald reported, a 2024 letter showed that President Biden’s administration urged Gov. Maura Healey to clean up the state’s SNAP program, which was recently found by state and federal authorities, and a whistleblower report, to be the subject of tens of millions of dollars in public benefits fraud.
Up until now, Healey has claimed that allegations of fraud in Massachusetts, labeled by President Trump during the State of the Union address as among the most fraud-ridden states, are simply a “distraction” by Trump to shift focus away from what she says are his failed policies.
Nice try. Until the 2024 letter from the USDA came to light. It urged Healey to improve and bring to “acceptable” levels the Department of Transitional Assistance’s payment error rate, case and procedural error rate, and its application processing timeliness, adding that all three didn’t meet “basic federal requirements” in FY22, which was under the Gov. Charlie Baker administration.
Enter COVID.
“Nationwide, payment error rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic because of federal policy changes” (under the Biden Administration), DTA spokesperson Cecille Avila told the Herald. “The Department of Transitional Assistance has been taking significant action to lower the payment error rate, including increasing caseworkers to verify eligibility, implementing stricter reporting requirements for clients, and strengthening staff training.”
According to Avila, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government directed states to prioritize rapid access to benefits and implement broad waivers for verification, adding “that approach was intentional and appropriate, it prevented hunger and stabilized families.”
And apparently boosted the rate of payment errors.
The notion that implementing “broad waivers” for verification won’t set the state up for failure down the road is the opposite of good leadership.
Yes, the Biden Administration issued those changes, but his administration also ended the COVID national and public health emergencies on May 11, 2023. That would have been a good time to tap the brakes and assess those broad waivers and see where all the money was going.
Recovery was getting underway, and even though more, likely jobless people needed food support, there were still opportunities to make sure money was going to the right places. Taxpayer money, to be precise.
It’s one thing to face high tax bills, it’s another to learn that the money that was supposed to help the food insecure was lost to fraud. How many people could those mis-spent funds have helped?
It’s time to stop the blame game and the political maneuvering. Taxpayer money is not there to waste, and SNAP recipients who are eligible need the designated funds to go for food, not fraud.
Editorial cartoon by Joe Heller. (Joe Heller)
