USDA Announces New Anti-Fraud Measures

USDA Proposes Additional Steps to Fight Fraud and Enhance SNAP Integrity Announcements Highlight Ongoing Efforts to Fight Fraud in Nation's Most Critical Nutrition Assistance Program   On May 24, Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin Concannon announced new measures to further reduce fraud in USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as part of the Obama administration's ongoing Campaign to Cut Waste. The new measures will help root out waste, fraud and abuse so that federal dollars are invested wisely by giving states new tools to examine excessive requests for replacement benefit cards. Current law lacks needed flexibility for States to contact households for information about requests for multiple replacements, which in some cases may indicate fraudulent activity. "There are many legitimate reasons for replacing cards and the vast majority of recipients follow the rules," said Concannon, Agriculture Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. "But we are concerned that a few bad actors are using replacement cards to exchange SNAP benefits for cash, commonly referred to as trafficking." Trafficking is an illegal activity punishable by disqualification from the program, fines, and even criminal prosecution. Over the last 15 years, FNS has aggressively implemented a number of measures to reduce the prevalence of trafficking in SNAP from 4 percent down to 1 percent. Click here to read more...