Amid rising food stamp theft, Congress must address root cause in debit cards

A lot of attention has been given recently to reimbursing victims of the despicable and increasingly pervasive crime of food stamp theft. Criminals are using skimming devices to steal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) benefits off of the electronic debit-like cards that recipients use to purchase their groceries each month, costing tens of millions of tax dollars.

I’ve heard heartbreaking stories from victimized constituents: a disabled women whose benefits were skimmed three consecutive months, a man whose benefits were stolen in December, forcing him to spend what little cash he had for a Christmas gift for his son on groceries instead. Another, whose story was recently featured on the popular podcast, This American Life, was forced to investigate her stolen benefits herself, overcoming her fear of driving and trekking to a convenience store nearly 50 miles from her home, where she watched a woman on grainy security footage use her benefits to buy more than $600 in baby formula.

Reimbursement is important. That’s why, in December, Congress added a measure to this all-encompassing 2023 spending bill requiring states to use their federal SNAP allocation to reimburse these victims. The provision is good for benefits stolen from Oct. 1, 2022, through the end of September next year. States have to submit reimbursement plans for USDA approval and, this week, my home state of Maryland became the first in the country to do so. Their plan is expected to help replace $2.5 million in stolen benefits to more than 3,800 victims alone.

It’s worth noting that states and localities could already reimburse victims — using their own money, not federal funds. But only five chose to: California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. After September of next year, when the provision in the spending bill expires, states will again be on their own.

I’ve introduced legislation that will enable states to use their federal SNAP allocations to reimburse stolen benefits permanently. But while reimbursement is vital, it’s no silver bullet. Victims of food stamp theft are hungry. They can’t wait for their benefit cards to be reloaded — they head to soup kitchens and food banks. They borrow food from friends. And because SNAP benefits can only be used for groceries, reimbursement means they often end up with an excess balance that does nothing to help them catch up on rent or utility bills that fell to the wayside while waiting for the system to work.

That’s why, in addition to reimbursement, my bill aims to prevent food stamp theft in the first place by improving the security of benefit cards. 

Card skimming is astonishingly easy. The criminals work in pairs — one distracts the checkout clerk while the other installs a device over the card reader that is nearly impossible to detect. The device enables the thieves to lift the card number and PIN off of a benefits card as its swiped.

And while SNAP benefit cards look and function just like an ATM or credit card, they do not have the same embedded security features like microchips along with a magnetic stripe. And banks contracted by states to issue and accept cards at their ATM machines can’t reverse fraudulent purchases like they can with credit cards.

These benefit cards are so vulnerable to skimming that they are exposing the state agencies that administer the SNAP program to legal consequences — like the class-action lawsuit recently filed against Massachusetts’ SNAP agency demanding they reimburse victims.

In its reimbursement plan, Maryland outlined ways they plan to improve card security, like locking cards when they’re not in use and sending texts and emails to recipients each time a transaction is made. These are great and I applaud all of them. But card security should be strong and consistent nationwide.

My bill requires the USDA to look into developing an electronic benefit transfer card that contains innovative technologies, such as an embedded microchip or, down the road, even stronger security features. A more secure card will be more expensive to produce, but this could be offset in savings down the road. That’s because every $1 of stolen SNAP benefits costs as much as $4.40 in internal labor and administrative work, according to a recent LexisNexis Risk Solutions study. 

No community in America has been left untouched by this crime wave, which is why my bill is picking up bicameral, bipartisan interest. This is a simple, commonsense way to ensure tax dollars are spent on their intended purpose. More importantly, it offers a solution to a crime that preys on the most vulnerable among us — a crime that we have the power to prevent with technology that already exists.

It is more important than ever to protect these benefits. Extra SNAP benefits included in a COVID-relief measure passed by Congress at the beginning of the pandemic expired for all states last month, affecting about 41 million Americans. Some of my colleagues are even suggesting we cut SNAP entirely as a way to reduce overall spending.

SNAP is the most effective tool we have for fighting hunger — and it has helped millions of Americans put food on their table when they were struggling. No child should go hungry in the wealthiest nation in the world, either at the hands of conservative ideology or a heartless thief.

C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger serves on the House Appropriations Committee.