In a letter, six Democratic senators urged the U.S. Agriculture Department to act immediately to safeguard the benefits cards that are being used to steal grocery money from low-income families.
Over $150 million in stolen benefits have been returned to SNAP participants by the federal government since the previous fiscal year, according to data.
In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the senators stated that a proposed rule regarding modernizing the cards, which the Agriculture Department has not yet released, would stop the thefts from spreading, but the actual amount taken from needy households is probably much higher than that.
The letter, which was received Monday evening and initially published by NBC News, stated that the USDA should move quickly to mandate that state-issued assistance cards be secured by industry-standard payment security protections. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Peter Welch, D-Vt., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., signed it.
According to the Agriculture Department, which is in charge of SNAP, it is a comprehensive public benefits program that assists more than 42 million people across the country in buying fruits, vegetables, and other goods. Previously known as food stamps, the program issues electronic benefits transfer cards with magnetic stripes to users, which they scan at card-reading machines.
However, SNAP EBT cards do not include security features like microchips or tap-to-pay technology, in contrast to consumer credit and debit cards. Because of this, they are especially susceptible to skimming, a type of electronic crime in which thieves conceal devices in payment terminals and duplicate card details, including PINs. (An illustration of skimming overlays can be found here.) The information is then copied onto fictitious cards, which the fraudsters use to deprive SNAP users of their benefits.
In an NBC News statement, Wyden said, “It is unacceptable that scammers and hackers are stealing food benefits that low-income families depend on to put food on the table.” Our government must continue to put off enforcing laws that would protect families from robbers who steal their benefits and leave them without enough cash to buy groceries.
Only a few states have timelines for the switch to chip-embedded cards, and none currently offer EBT cards with microchip protection. According to an Agriculture Department representative, California is the state that is furthest advanced, with plans to begin implementing them in early 2025. According to representatives for the organizations that run SNAP in those states, Alabama may adopt chip cards as early as the spring, but Oklahoma and Alabama are expected to make the changeover next summer.
The Agriculture Department must mandate more secure cards across the country as quickly as feasible, according to advocates.
According to Betsy Gwin, a senior economic justice lawyer at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a nonprofit center for poverty law and policy, the impacted households are victims of crime.
Hearing from families who are taking all the necessary precautions but are still in danger and wind up in a grocery store checkout line with a cart full of groceries only to find out that their benefits for that month have been stolen and they are unable to feed their family is still incredibly heartbreaking, she said.
In their letter, the senators urged the Agriculture Department to expeditiously complete the proposed rule for EBT card security measures, which was mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.
The senators stated that although the private sector’s creativity and some states’ leadership in this area are praiseworthy, the severity of the problem necessitates a coordinated government approach.
Last month, Vilsack urged all state governors to implement revised EBT guidelines for cardholders. Before receiving the letter, the Agriculture Department told NBC News that rulemaking on EBT card security improvements is still in progress and should be completed by 2025.
According to a spokesperson’s email, states are not prohibited by our present regulations from deploying chip cards prior to this rulemaking.
Reimbursements at risk
Just days before the program that has permitted states to utilize federal dollars to pay SNAP recipients for certain stolen benefits is about to expire, the senators’ letter arrives at a critical moment.
The majority of people who are robbed of their food vouchers would not receive their money back because just a few states have restored skimming SNAP payments using state funds, and federal monies will no longer be able to compensate victims of EBT theft after Friday unless Congress takes immediate action.
Congress has been urged by those battling food insecurity to include an extension of federal SNAP replacement payments in the year-end spending bill.
In a statement released over the weekend, Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of the advocacy group Food Research & Action Center, said it is unacceptable that some members of Congress would obstruct the provision of SNAP replacement benefits to victims of fraud.
According to the senators’ letter, unless the Agriculture Department eliminates the requirement that SNAP EBT cards contain antiquated and unsafe magnetic stripes and substitute chip cards within the next few years, stolen benefits will remain an issue.
The letter stated that although replacing stolen benefits is important, it is not a long-term solution. The proposed rule to update EBT technology should be issued quickly in order to improve consumer safeguards, lower fraud, and eventually save government money.
In March, Wyden filed a measure that would require the Agriculture Department to phase out magnetic stripe cards within five years and release new cybersecurity requirements for SNAP EBT cards for the first time since 2010. The bill is still pending.
In a statement to NBC News on Monday, Fetterman, a co-sponsor of Wyden’s measure, stated that low-income people shouldn’t have to be concerned about losing their benefits because the system hasn’t kept up with fundamental security standards.
He noted that in order to shield families from needless risks of fraud and theft, Congress ordered USDA to update these cards. We’re urging the USDA to get off the back burner and update EBT cards using the same technology that has been used for years on debit and credit cards.
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