Missouri senators target food stamp fraud

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Republican lawmakers are once again looking to crack down on welfare fraud, but opponents are asking whether the problems they seek to eliminate even exist.

Last week the Senate committee on governmental accountability debated a piece of legislation that would require photo identification on all EBT food stamp cards in Missouri.

There are nearly half a million Missourians using EBT cards to purchase groceries on a daily basis. Last year Missouri began requiring a subset of this group -- about 50,000 Missourians receiving support from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program -- to have photos on their cards.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, argued that requiring photo identification would in no way prevent qualified individuals from receiving benefits. Instead, he said, it would keep people from selling or stealing the cards.

"I want people to use taxpayer dollars the way they were intended for the people they were intended for," Kraus said.

Kraus gave anecdotal evidence to support his position, telling the committee about a conversation he overheard in a store where a customer appeared to be using someone else's card, but he was unable to provide specific estimates on how rampant food stamp fraud it in Missouri. He said any welfare fraud is too much.

An investigation by the USDA claims that as much as $753 million of the $75.3 billion distributed in federal food stamp programs last year may have been spent fraudulently. Last month, the Obama administration outlined stiffer penalties and enforcement measures to eliminate fraud in the program, which has grown to record levels in the wake of the recession and a string of natural disasters across the country.

But one senator on the committee said it would be hard to support a photo ID bill without firm evidence from the Missouri Department of Social Services that EBT card impersonation fraud was significant problem.

"I'm looking for some empirical evidence on this," Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-St. Louis, told Kraus during the hearing. "I mean, it's going to be hard to vote on your one experience."

Although Chappelle-Nadal said she supports measures to stop fraud, she asked her Republican counterparts why social welfare programs were so frequently the targets of anti-fraud measures.

Last year, Republicans successfully passed and Gov. Jay Nixon signed into law a controversial provision to drug test TANF welfare recipients suspected of abusing controlled substances.

The committee will likely vote on the bill sometime next week.

Pertinent address:

Jefferson City, MO