The Iowa Senate recently passed a bill that aims to restructure part of the state’s welfare program.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says he voted in favor of a bill that creates a computer program to better track eligible individuals that utilize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). He explains this bill addresses an issue the state had a couple of years ago when the federal government audited how the Iowa Department of Human Services was using the SNAP program.

“We had a very high error rate compared to the rest of the nation. We were fined $1.7 million because of this overpayment. We had $40 million in overpayment in SNAP in one year. So to kind of fix this problem, we want to have a new system that verifies and puts extra accountability on the SNAP benefits.”

Green adds the bill calls for a $500,000 computerized program. The bill is now in the House for consideration. Click the link below to access this bill. To hear more from Green about this and other legislative topics, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=SF%20389&v=i