Congress passed the usual last-minute spending bill in mid-December, continuing the budget and avoiding a government shutdown. The bill passed in the end was a replacement for a previous bill supported by both parties that was trashed by President-elect Trump and unelected grand vizier Elon Musk, causing frightened congressmembers to vote against it and start over with a race against time for a new bill.
In the process, some very good items in the first bill were lost. Sadly, one of those items was an extension of federal replacement funds for SNAP ("food stamp") benefits stolen by "skimming". While local news is rife with stories of stolen toys and decorations at Christmas time, the government's decision to ignore the theft of survival food money from the country's most vulnerable residents including seniors, children, and people with disabilities should be front and center.
SNAP theft occurs when someone steals the information for someone's SNAP card using skimmers and other devices, the same way that credit and debit card info is stolen. This type of electronic robbery has been increasing to the point where government intervention was finally demanded, to reimburse people who had lost benefits. Ortega v Johnson, a case won by Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles when this crime was relatively new, established the right to return food benefits, whereas only cash benefits were protected before. Click Here
States reimbursed victims up to a certain point out of their own funds. Washington DC finally decided that it would get involved in remedying what was becoming theft in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Beginning in 2023, the federal government has reimbursed the states for their compensation of the theft victims. In December's first iteration of a spending bill extension, Republicans and Democrats came together and included an extension of this policy for four years. But the Musk-Trump threats resulted in a frantic re-working of the bill, with the extension of this compensation falling to the wayside in the ruckus. And the final version of the government spending bill, unlike the heart-warming stories on the local news of truckloads of toys being collected to replace stolen Christmas gifts, was a big middle finger to the poorest people in our country, who are losing a lot more than just some toys--they can't buy food.
In a country obsessed with Bitcoin and AI, we can't figure out a way to get assistance to the poor to buy food, without having the funds stolen. A major step would be the use of chip/tap cards for EBT recipients; these features have long been standard on credit and debit cards, but the long delay in implementation for SNAP (in a couple of states like California and Oklahoma) shows just how low of a priority is given to low-income victims of nationwide digital crime. Washington just showed again it doesn't have the will to compensate for those who have been victims of this skimming of benefits.
Someone should invent a cryptocurrency for use only by the poor.
Frank Tamborello was born in Texas and now lives in California working in the social services field.
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