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White House Pushes Congress To Strengthen Welfare Fraud Laws After Task Force Findings
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The Federalist, Approved, National

White House Pushes Congress To Strengthen Welfare Fraud Laws After Task Force Findings

By: Breccan F. Thies | The Federalist Welfare programs were created in a ‘high trust’ America that no longer exists. THE WHITE HOUSE — Vice President J.D. Vance has been leading the charge against billions in taxpayer fraud. But to mobilize the entire federal government in combating the theft, Vance said Wednesday, Congress needs to create harsher punishments for fraudsters and force states to share data for welfare recipients. Vance hosted a roundtable with members of Congress at the White House midweek, attempting to hammer out plans for legislation to strengthen the executive branch’s ability to investigate fraud and expand prosecutors’ options to penalize Americans and illegals committing fraud. Since the start of Vance’s anti-fraud task force, the gr...
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Colorado SNAP Error Rate Could Leave Taxpayers Paying Millions More
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado SNAP Error Rate Could Leave Taxpayers Paying Millions More

By: Logan McCahill | Complete Colorado For the first time since the Great Recession, 1 in 10 Coloradans are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps. The federally subsidized program provides families below a government-established income level with food benefits to help with grocery bills. Starting in October of 2027, Colorado will begin paying a share of these benefits due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The amount taxpayers will owe depends on how many people participate in SNAP and how accurately the state processes them, both of which are growing issues for Colorado.   Rising enrollment Between 2020 and 2025, SNAP enrollment grew more than six times faster than Col...
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Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States
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Just The News, Approved, National

Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States

By Brett Rowland | Just the News Programs in question include Medicaid, food stamps and disaster relief. Twenty federal programs that route nearly $1.1 trillion through state governments – including Medicaid, SNAP and disaster relief – are vulnerable to fraud because of how the money is distributed, the Government Accountability Office reports. The money rarely goes straight from Washington to a recipient. It passes through states, then often to subrecipients, contractors and subcontractors. Every layer, GAO found, adds another entry point for fraud while making oversight harder to enforce. The report is the first in a planned GAO series examining fraud in state-administered programs. It reaffirms the agency's estimate that the government loses between $233 bi...
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New Report Finds Colorado Children Face Growing Financial and Education Challenges
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

New Report Finds Colorado Children Face Growing Financial and Education Challenges

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Despite having one of the country’s highest median incomes, Colorado families are struggling to afford essentials like food, housing, health care and child care. That’s according to the Colorado Children’s Campaign, which released its annual Kids Count report recently. It provides an overview of how the state’s infants, children and teens are faring compared to previous years. The report is broken down into four categories: economic security, health, K-12 education and early childhood. “The data remind us of what is at stake and who is relying on us to pay attention,” Heather Tritten, president and CEO of Colorado Children’s Campaign, said in the report. “This is a moment when data matter. In difficult times, c...
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Colorado non-citizen households used welfare at a far higher rate than the U.S.-born.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado non-citizen households used welfare at a far higher rate than the U.S.-born.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Half of Colorado households headed by a non-citizen, regardless of legal status, either used a traditional welfare program or qualified for federal tax credits aimed at low-wage workers. That is the finding of a new national report the Center for Immigration Studies released June 11. It is built on five years of Census Bureau survey data, pooled to get state samples large enough to be meaningful. The numbers come at a moment when Colorado is still absorbing the fiscal fallout from its own immigrant health coverage program, one that was projected to cost $27 million and enrolled more than eight times as many people as the legislature anticipated. And they arrive just weeks after Colorado began implementing federal food-sta...
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New Federal Reforms Target Billions In State Fraud And Waste
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The Federalist, Approved, Commentary, National

New Federal Reforms Target Billions In State Fraud And Waste

By Christopher Jacobs | Commentary, The Federalist A recent congressional hearing showed the scope of the state waste, fraud, and abuse problem our nation faces. A recurring theme of public policy — one that leftists often ignore — is how people respond to incentives. If the federal government runs programs that give individuals carte blanche to steal, then some unscrupulous actors will exploit those weaknesses to do so. But those incentives go beyond individuals and also extend to the fight against waste, fraud, and abuse. In many cases, states have taken little action to crack down on fraud and waste within government programs because the federal government provides the bulk of the funding for said programs. If Washington gives states a blank check regardless of wh...
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Food Shaming Concerns Delay Colorado Plan to Ban Soda Purchases With Food Stamps
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Food Shaming Concerns Delay Colorado Plan to Ban Soda Purchases With Food Stamps

By: Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun The SNAP rule change was delayed by a state board after a 7-hour hearing including fierce opposition from the governor’s fellow Democrats, Hunger Free Colorado and Save the Children. A plan to prohibit Coloradans from using food-assistance benefits to buy soda and sugary fruit juices was stalled Friday by a state board after opponents argued it was an overreach that could harm the dignity and autonomy of low-income families. The rule would ban the use of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called SNAP, to buy soda as well as juices with added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Gov. Jared Polis won approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the “healthy choice” rule in August, but needed...
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Trump Administration Presses Democrat States to Share SNAP Data or Face Withholding of Aid
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, National

Trump Administration Presses Democrat States to Share SNAP Data or Face Withholding of Aid

By Darlene Superville and Geoff Mulvihill | The Denver Gazette WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless those states provide information about those receiving the assistance. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested such as the names and immigration status of aid recipients. She said the cooperation is necessary in order to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia previously sued&...
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USDA Pushes Reforms After Study Links Liquor and Tobacco Shops to SNAP Fraud Risks
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Just The News, Approved, National

USDA Pushes Reforms After Study Links Liquor and Tobacco Shops to SNAP Fraud Risks

By: Steven Richards | Just the News More than 5,000 liquor and smoke shops were approved as retailers under SNAP, raising fraud concerns. There's no way to determine how much alcohol, tobacco, or other "non-compliant" goods have been sold nationwide. At least 20 states refuse to share data with the feds. Food stamps were first issued in 1939 as an assistance program to prevent starvation during the Great Depression.  But 86 years later, thousands of liquor stores and smoke shops have become approved retailers, increasing the possibility of fraud, new research shows.  The longest ever government shutdown, which ended after 43 days of deadlock, thrust the federal food stamp program into the national spotlight as millions of recipients went without benefits. But...
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Colorado Joins the Fight to Keep SNAP Benefits for Illegal Aliens
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Joins the Fight to Keep SNAP Benefits for Illegal Aliens

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette Colorado joined 21 other states in a lawsuit seeking to undo the Trump administration’s campaign to stop taxpayer-funded food aid from going to individuals illegally staying in the U.S., arguing the move also implicated a group of noncitizens who should be eligible to get the benefits under the law. At issue is a guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that implements the provisions of the congressional budget passed in July. That budget narrowed the groups of noncitizens who could receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that some 90,000 on average will lose eligibility per month as a result of the new law. The individuals would have received about $210 per mo...
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