By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma House lawmakers on Wednesday considered measures that would create limitations on the use of food assistance funds in an effort to curtail fraud and cut costs.
One bill would prevent Oklahoma Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars from being spent out of state while another would require the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to verify the lawful immigration status of welfare recipients.
“The goal of this is to reduce bad out of state actors from stealing these very important, crucial benefits from our clients,” said Rep. Emily Gise, R-Oklahoma City.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has been subject to federal changes that raised the cost of running the program for states. DHS included a request for $25 million to cover the higher cost of administering SNAP for the state agency in the next fiscal year, according to reporting from KOSU.
Further changes to SNAP are coming as a result of Congress passing House Resolution 1, or the Big Beautiful Bill, in July which led to DHS requesting greater funds to administer the program in Oklahoma.
Because of the federal changes to SNAP, states will be forced to pay a greater share of SNAP’s administrative costs, shifting from a 25/75 split to a 50/50 split. Oklahoma DHS officials estimated in October that this would increase the state share by about $34 million.
Oklahoma and other states will also be required to pay for a portion of the awarded SNAP benefits based on the state’s error rate. Error rates are not always fraud or “bad actors,” but can refer to overpayments, underpayments or SNAP beneficiaries failing to update their income, Gise said.
The higher a state’s SNAP error rate, the more they’ll have to contribute to the program based on a sliding scale. Oklahoma’s error rate is 10.87%, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture data. At this rate, Oklahoma would have to match 15% of SNAP funding, which is about $248 million. The error rate would need to be below 6% to avoid additional state matching funds.
Gise, vice chair of the House Human Services budget committee, said she had heard anecdotal stories from DHS about out-of-state fraud which led to her authoring House Bill 2984.
SNAP funds wouldn’t be able to be used outside the state of Oklahoma under her bill, which unanimously advanced from committee. She said the goal of the bill is to reduce the number of “out-of-state bad actors” taking advantage of Oklahoma’s SNAP dollars.
“By putting this requirement in place, we will be adding a veil of protection for our clients and will protect them from card skimming and that money being stolen,” Gise said. “Once the money is stolen, unfortunately, the Department of Human Services is not able to replenish that cash, and that family will potentially go without food for that month. We heavily rely on our community partners to fill the gap, and so it depletes those resources in our counties.”
Rep. Meloyde Blancett, D-Tulsa, said she had concerns about Oklahomans living near state lines whose closest option for groceries is in a neighboring state.
Gise said she’s considering including a potential radius for how far SNAP recipients can go to spend their dollars, but is working with DHS to see how feasible this is.
The state agency is actively working toward other solutions, she said, including greater support for case managers, further cross referencing for income assessments, and improving on the technology for SNAP cards to prevent fraud like skimming, she said.
Gise said a bill from House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, would help create greater accountability in where SNAP dollars go which could cut down on fraud and reduce Oklahoma’s payment error rate.
Hilbert authored House Bill 4422 which would require DHS to verify the immigration status of various welfare programs, including SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The bill advanced from committee 7-1, with the only no vote coming from a Democrat.
SNAP has generally never been available to noncitizens, according to the USDA, except in certain circumstances.
The bill would require DHS to review lawful immigration status and report any SNAP or TANF applicants who are not in the country legally to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
DHS would also be required to post notice on the agency’s website that immigration status will be reviewed as part of the application process for SNAP or TANF.
“I wanted to improve our verification system, our wellness system, make sure that those recipients of these dollars are, in fact, American citizens,” Hilbert said. “And that is something that I’ve heard resoundingly from my constituents and folks around the state, that welfare recipients should be American citizens. I don’t think that is a controversial thing.”
