As if this weren’t bad enough, the feds are also giving the state a two-year grant to test an “innovative approach†to the food-stamp “client eligibility review process.†This will make it even easier for people to get food stamps because it grants state officials a waiver that allows them to grant the benefit without interviewing the candidate.
In its quest to promote taxpayer-funded entitlement programs, the Obama Administration has actually rewarded one state with a $5 million bonus for its efficiency in adding food-stamp recipients to already bulging rolls.
It’s part of the administration’s campaign to eradicate “food insecure households†by improving access and increasing participation in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Incidentally, the program was recently changed to SNAP to eliminate the stigma that comes with a name like food stamps. Just a few months ago the federal agency that administers the program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), launched a multi-million-dollar initiative to recruit more food-stamp participants even though the number of recipients has skyrocketed in the last few years.
This week Oregon officials bragged that the USDA has given the state $5 million in “performance bonuses†for ensuring that people eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications.†The money comes on the heels of a separate $1.5 million award from the feds for making “accurate payments of food stamp benefits to clients.†So welfare recipients are clients?
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