Delay in SNAP Ban on Candy, Soda Questioned

By Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — A Kansas legislative committee focused on government efficiency on Tuesday questioned why it was taking a state agency so long to implement a waiver that bans people from buying soda or candy with food assistance. 

The state is as much as 18 months away from implementing the ban, which would affect recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars, according to testimony from Carla Whiteside-Hicks, DCF director of economic and employment services,  to the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency.

The answer did not please committee members. 

Chairwoman Renee Erickson, R-Wichita, said all the states around Kansas put the waiver in place in less than a year, and she couldn’t understand what was taking DCF so long. 

“We are an island,” she said. 

Whiteside-Hicks said a lack of employees specialized in implementation of a waiver of this complexity has slowed DCF down. She said DCF put out a Request for Proposals to hire a consultant to coordinate communications with retailers and recipients and overall implementation.

DCF applied for the waiver in May, and Whiteside-Hicks said she updated the application with more detailed information Monday. 

Although the state projected it would take 18 months to implement the waiver once the federal government approves it, Whiteside-Hicks said it could be completed more quickly. She said Kansas DCF employees are working with other states that have implemented the waiver to make their processes more efficient. 

SNAP error rate

The committee also asked Whiteside-Hicks about DCF’s error rate, which could potentially cost the state as much as $41 million if it doesn’t drop below 6%.

In the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the federal government stipulated that states reporting an error rate above 6% would share administrative costs with the federal government.

For federal fiscal year 2025, the Kansas SNAP error rate was 9.13%, Whiteside-Hicks said. It was 5.5% for the month of August, a reflection of measures taken to lower the rate, she said. 

“We have been addressing this. We knew what the federal threshold was,” Whiteside-Hicks said, noting the goal before passage of the new law had always been error rates below 6%. “When this legislation was passed, it caused us to double down on some of the things we were doing.” 

DCF hired a consultant to help with the process of determining the best ways to lower the error rate, she said.  

The state can use its FFY 2025 or FFY 2026 error rate to determine whether it will need to kick in for administrative costs, Whiteside-Hicks said. The focus is on lowering it this year to avoid the federal cost-share, she said.

Appeal on SNAP data

In other SNAP news, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly challenged the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s request for SNAP data Monday, calling the agency’s failure to directly acknowledge questionable legalities around how the information will be used “brazen.” 

“USDA seeks to change federal legislation with the following argument: ‘Ignore what we said.  Trust us,’” the state said in its latest filing in an appeals case before the USDA’s Appeals Board. “When this Board considers that the confidential information of thousands of Kansans and tens of millions of dollars are at stake, ‘Trust us’ simply will not suffice.”

The state has refused to turn over personal data of Kansans who apply or receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since May, asserting that part of the USDA’s intent to use the data would violate the Food Nutrition Act and Kansas Cybersecurity Act. 

“USDA’s data demand is unlawful because Routine Use 8 intends to use SNAP benefit applicant data outside permissible (Food and Nutrition Act) purposes,” the filing said. “USDA does not deny this.”