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County official says SNAP recipients faced confusion during shutdown; calls for audit
Summary
An unnamed county official said St. Mary—s County distributes about $1.9 million in SNAP benefits monthly and described confusion after a news report about card balances being usable in November. The official said local social services were not notified promptly and suggested auditing the SNAP program to ensure benefits reach eligible people.
Speaker 1, Speaker (presenter), said St. Mary—s County distributes about $1,900,000 a month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and described confusion for residents when benefits did not reload during a recent funding lapse.
"I applaud the states who are able to use a state budget surplus to fund SNAP relief, especially Virginia," Speaker 1 said, citing Governor Youngkin as an example of state-level action. The speaker said the county evaluated but rejected the idea that St. Mary—s County could fund a month of SNAP benefits itself given the local budget picture and the scale of payments.
Speaker 1 recounted spending roughly 30— to 40 minutes speaking with the director of social services after a news report on Oct. 28 indicated SNAP card balances could be used through November. That guidance, the speaker said, had not been communicated to the county—s local social services office until the following midday.
"For information as important as that, the information should have been disseminated to the state, local offices and to the county governments to let . . . the folks who receive SNAP know that they have money on their card. They can use it," Speaker 1 said.
The speaker said the county had considered supplementing food pantries to help government employees who had gone a month without a paycheck and SNAP recipients whose electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards had not been reloaded. The speaker emphasized that asking the county government to fund a full month of SNAP payments would be "an impossible task" given local finances.
Speaker 1 also urged bipartisan review of the program, noting that about 41,700,000 people nationwide receive SNAP and suggesting an audit to ensure benefits reach eligible recipients while acknowledging any program can be vulnerable to fraud.
The county official did not identify a specific audit mechanism or timeline, and no formal motion or vote on county action was recorded in the remarks.
