(The Center Square) – North Carolinians receiving food assistance benefits from the federal government are yet to learn when and how their reapplication process will work.
Or, according to a published report Thursday, if they even will have to reapply.
In the interim, no action is required and the SNAP program is up and running following a 43-day shutdown of the federal government. The state Department of Health and Human Services said approximately 600,000 households received full amounts on electronic benefits transfer cards Nov. 14. The Health Department had loaded partial payments onto EBT cards on Nov. 7.
Many faith and nonprofit organizations helping fill the gap learned, however, that recipients had already began to adjust personal budgets – meaning, choices such as rent, medicine and food changed and a struggle to make ends meet will continue to the end of the month. Perhaps into December.
As the shutdown reached its second month, Secretary Brooke Rollins of the U.S. Department of Agriculture – administering agency of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – said the second term of Republican President Donald Trump included review to help eradicate waste and fraud. And she indicated as recently as last week all would have to reapply.
Thursday, Politico cited unnamed sources in the Trump administration saying states instead would use their verification process. The USDA hasn’t provided an update.
Rollins said auditing from state-supplied data has resulted in removal of about 700,000 people; 5,000 dead people were found to be getting benefits; and one individual was a recipient in six states. Arrests so far total 118. She said the program is “broken” and “corrupt.”
Speaking of the USDA’s request for the data, Rollins said nearly three-fifths of states had complied. Those that have not she called mostly “blue states,” meaning coupled with Thursday’s report that state verifications could be uneven among recipients.
“We’ve studied about $100 billion in spend, we have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT cards,” Rollins said on a broadcast network interview. “We’ve been moving people off SNAP.
“What this conversation has allowed is a national spotlight on a broken and corrupt program. It is time to drastically reform this program so that we can make sure that those who are truly needy, truly vulnerable are getting what they need and the rest of the corruption goes away and we can serve the American taxpayer.”
State verifications, as happens now, would not appear to meet the standard of “drastically reform this program” without change. In North Carolina, no changes have been announced.
In March 2020 at the outset of COVID-19 in the last year of Trump’s first term, Congress authorized extra SNAP benefits and suspended work and training requirements to last through the public health emergency. Recipients went from 37.2 million to 40.9 million in April. By September, it was more than 43 million.
In 2019, recipients were just more than 35.7 million.
Talking points of politicians have included citing illegal immigration as a reason for the strain on the program. Full context, however, would need to include the pandemic, and adjusted rules then and through the July 4 signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The USDA, in July, said for Fiscal Year 2024, an average of 41.7 million participants per month were served nationwide at a cost of $99.8 billion. That’s an average of $187.20 per participant.
