Crackdown on SNAP Program Fraud

Been shoveling out money out the door to states

to then administer these federal programs without even

being able to access the receipts to know where the money is going.

And now when we come to the states to say, "Hey, please show us your

receipts so we know where the money went," they sue us in court and

claim they don't actually have to give us the receipts, uh, for the money that they

took from us to then, uh, give out in, in many cases to

fraudsters. So the House in, in a great move for the United

States of America has passed that data-sharing requirement.

That's a common sense tool that the House is bringing to bear,

and I can guarantee you that the National Fraud Enforcement

Division will utilize

that tool to the maximum in finding fraudsters.

Assistant Attorney General, this is Alicia Acuna.

Uh, thank you again for joining us here.

I'd like to expand a little bit on the crackdown on

fraud in the SNAP program, uh, specifically with the State of

Arizona where reportedly about half the people, about half a

million people who were on the program were dropped.

And I know you're trying to clean up this program.

Some of the complaints coming out of that state is that there

are folks who have

been trying to re-qualify, there have been troubles with the call

center, and we

know that there are people who haven't been able to get groceries.

I know that's not the intention of the administration.

What do you say to folks out there who are trying to do the right thing,

trying to

qualify, but still struggling with the whole

organization of it all in, in

trying to get their benefits back?

I would say that we are fighting for you.

Where there are millions of people who do not belong in these programs, who are

taking what is rightfully, what rightfully belongs to the poor,

the needy, and the hungry. When we clean up those, uh,

those, uh, rolls, if you will, that will allow those who actually

need these benefits to get it. And we see that across the board in the

healthcare

fraud space, in the SNAP space, in the HUD space, in the Small

Business Administration space. People who do not belong in these

programs who are stealing from the people who truly need the

programs. We are fighting for the people who truly

need it so

that these systems and these programs don't get jammed up by

fraudsters.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, thank you for joining us tonight.

Thanks for bringing these answers, and, uh, good luck in your quest to crack down

on this fraud.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

I'll bring it out to the table. Um, I, I wanna go back to-