We are committed to upholding Secretary of Agriculture Rollins’ priority to take swift action to minimize instances of fraud, waste, and program abuse, and to ensure American taxpayer dollars are spent with integrity and accountability. We are issuing this memo, both in support of that priority and in response to requests from SNAP state agencies and FDPIR administering agencies, for additional guidance on preventing dual participation and ensuring comparable disqualifications are applied in SNAP and FDPIR.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a letter today encouraging all governors to invest in SNAP EBT cards with chip technology for their states.
USDA is aware of increased reports of EBT theft due to card skimming, cloning, and similar fraudulent methods. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 includes provisions for the replacement of stolen EBT benefits with federal funds.
USDA's FNS and ACF at the Department of Health and Human Services are aware of increasing reports of benefit theft by criminal actors through EBT card skimming schemes. After discussions with EBT processors and fraud prevention stakeholders, FNS and ACF have identified prevention measures that can be adopted to improve card security while we work towards longer-term strategies.
In February, 2013, FNS published final regulations revising the definition of trafficking. It subsequently came to our attention that some states were not clear that upon its effective date, federal law takes precedence and states were expected to implement the new federal trafficking definition.
The increased focus on SNAP integrity has required FNS and the states to review their procedures for responding to integrity issues, specifically a clarification of FNS' responsibility when a state employee is found guilty of fraud while administering the program.
The purpose of this memo is to clarify SNAP eligibility for certain Haitian orphans.
This memorandum is to reiterate and clarify current policy governing intentional program violations as set forth in the Food Stamp Program regulations.
After a further review of this matter, and upon advice of our legal counsel, we have reconsidered our position on the use of the Request for Contact (RFC) to facilitate household cooperation with fraud investigations. We have decided that the RFC may only be issued by state eligibility workers and only when the state agency learns of a change in the household’s circumstances that calls into question the household’s continued eligibility for the program or its current level of benefits.