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Senate committee hears testimony urging restoration of stolen SNAP benefits and EBT chip upgrades
Summary
At a second hearing on Senate Resolution 29, proponents representing Ohio food banks, advocacy groups and a policy organization urged Congress to resume reimbursements for skimmed SNAP benefits and backed state investments to upgrade EBT cards to chip technology to prevent skimming.
The Ohio Senate Workforce Development Committee held a second hearing on Senate Resolution 29 and heard proponent testimony urging Congress to restore reimbursements for stolen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and to back technology upgrades to Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.
Proponents told the committee that organized criminal skimming rings have stolen SNAP benefits from vulnerable recipients, that federal reimbursement authority that ran from December 2022 through December 2024 has expired, and that the lapse leaves families with no federal recourse when benefits are skimmed. Hopeland Gavin, director of nutrition policy and programs at the Ohio Association of Food Banks, told the committee the association represents 12 Feeding America food banks and about 3,600 partner agencies across all 88 Ohio counties and that SNAP provides “as much as nine times as many meals as food banks provide.” Gavin said food bank surveys show roughly 40% of their clients also receive regular SNAP benefits and described at least 31,000 Ohio beneficiaries affected by skimming, representing more than $17 million in known losses.
Gavin said Congress’s 2022 pathway to reimburse skimmed benefits capped reimbursement to a month’s worth of benefits per household per calendar year, could take weeks to process, and ended in December 2024. She told the committee that without federal reimbursement or a technology fix, many victims do not report thefts and the scale of fraud is likely undercounted.
Bo Ooten of FGA Action echoed those concerns, citing millions in stolen benefits nationally and noting that the lapse in federal replacements leaves families exposed. Sarah Hudisak, coalition manager for Advocates for Ohio’s Future, said the thefts have increased pressure on food banks already facing high demand and repeated the request that Congress resume replacement authority and that Ohio consider investing its share of SNAP operational funds to chip-enable EBT cards.
Witnesses noted some states have begun upgrading EBT cards using the federal 50/50 administrative match to pay the state portion of the upgrade cost; Gavin named Oklahoma, Maryland, New Jersey and California as examples. Gavin also flagged Ohio House Bill 163 as a vehicle that would begin the state-side upgrade process and urged committee members to review that bill.
Committee members asked for clarification about whether states could act without a federal mandate; Gavin replied that both paths are possible: the federal government could enable a nationwide solution but several states have moved ahead on their own using federal matching funds.
The committee did not take a vote on the resolution at the hearing. The chair closed the record after additional written testimony from groups including Mid-Ohio Food Collective, the Ohio Poverty Law Center, Center for Community Solutions (written as "Senator for Community Solutions" in committee materials) and Ohio Job and Family Services was made available to members.
