The Oct. 3 article “TN SNAP enrollment drops by 90K but TN will pay $220M more next year” lays out the challenges facing the Tennessee legislature due to the One Big Beautiful Bill, HR1. It levies SNAP benefit cost-sharing penalties based on the states’ error rates. These errors are not fraudulent claims by SNAP recipients but rather state calculations paying recipients either too much or too little. The data used covers the year before HR1 was passed and then while states were implementing procedures to match policy changes.
Some states negotiated a delay so their error rates will be calculated after they correct their procedures. Others are simply asking that all states have that opportunity. The “farm bill” being considered by the Senate delays
the penalties by a year, but uses the original statistics and increases cost-sharing penalties. That’s not a compromise.
We should all urge Senators Blackburn and Hagerty to reject the current farm bill and allow all states time to correct procedures. Otherwise, consequences will impact our food-insecure neighbors who are already suffering the consequences of HR1’s eligibility restrictions.
Anne Child, Oak Ridge, 37830
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: States need time to correct their SNAP procedures | Letter
