LTE: To Modernize Welfare, States Need Better Tools

The Wall Street Journal
By: Stan Soloway, CAMI Board Chair

George Kelemen’s letter “Food Stamp Cuts Mean More Hungry Children” (Sept. 16) correctly points out that states are being held accountable for administrative failures they lack the tools to fix. Although states are partially to blame, federal rules also block states from supplementing their workforces with qualified private-sector contractors many desperately need.

The solution shouldn’t be to pause reform. While payment error rates in federal assistance programs can include fraud, insufficient records are more often the problem. Almost 80% of errors in Medicaid, for example, stem from inadequate documentation. When states rely on archaic systems and ill-equipped caseworkers to make complex benefit calculations, errors are the predictable result.

More time won’t resolve this issue either. States have already kicked the can down the road for decades. What they need is the flexibility to supplement existing staff with qualified contractors, better data infrastructure and verification tools that improve eligibility accuracy. This approach enables states to get the right benefits to the right people at the right time, all while dodging avoidable penalties.

While it’s encouraging that Congress is considering proposed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program staffing flexibility provisions, states preparing for implementation of some One Big Beautiful Bill Act provisions must recognize that existing administrative infrastructure remains thoroughly inadequate to satisfy new accountability mandates. Pairing reform with administrative investment is the only path that protects the program’s integrity and the families who depend on it.