South Dakota’s lone representative in the US House says a meeting on SNAP eligibility got heated Thursday.
Republican Dusty Johnson is a ranking member on the subcommittee looking at broad-based categorical eligibility for SNAP households.
Broad-based categorical eligibility is a policy states can implement that allows households to receive food assistance based on income, not assets.
Johnson says $7 billion of benefits go to households where it’s unclear if they even qualify for food stamps.
He says Democrats pointed to other areas of fraud and abuse in the government. Johnson says he supports closing those loopholes too.
“I have supported a number of pieces of legislation that would improve pharmaceutical pricing because we can do better,” Johnson says. “In fact, I think tax frauds and tax cheats should go to jail. But, none of those things obscure the fact that there are higher rates of waste, fraud and abuse within our social safety net programs than we like. Every dollar that goes to someone who is not eligible for it is a dollar that otherwise could go to families that are really struggling.”
Johnson says his $7 billion food stamp fraud figure comes from House Republicans ag committee staff and the Foundation for Government Accountability. The latter is described by NPR political reporters as right-leaning thinktank