Dick Lugar: “I rise today to support S. 1733, as amended, a bill to combat fraud and waste in the food stamp program. This bill will…”

“I rise today to support S. 1733, as amended, a bill to combat fraud and waste in the food stamp program. This bill will do two things. First, it will require food stamp offices to match food stamp files with Social Security data to identify overpayments to deceased food stamp participants. Second, it will require the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore data on the development of a national database to identify overpayments resulting from individuals receiving benefits in two or more states at the same time and implement other program interstate requirements. This bill is the result of the last two General Accounting Office studies that I requested dealing with groups of ineligible people receiving food stamps. In the first report, the GAO reported that 26,000 deceased individuals in four states were counted as members of a food stamp household. According to the GAO, this resulted in overpayments of an estimated $8.6 million. In the second report, the GAO identified over 20,000 individuals who received benefits in at least two states at the same time during 1996. Using administrative records from four states (California, Texas, New York, and Florida), the GAO estimates overpayments of $3.9 million in those states alone. Last year the GAO reported to the Agriculture Committee that over $3 million in food stamp benefits were overpaid to prisoners' households. In response, we passed legislation to stop prisoners from receiving benefits.”