The Obama administration’s efforts to keep secret information about
its scandal-plagued food-stamp program received a major blow from a
federal appellate court that’s ruled the government can’t hide how much
money businesses make by accepting the welfare payments.
In the last few years Judicial Watch has reported extensively on
the fraud and corruption surrounding food stamps, which are
administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food
stamp rolls have grown immensely under Obama and the government spends
an astounding $80.4 billion a year on the program to meet the
president’s goal of eradicating “food insecure households.” A recent USDA report estimates
that $858 annually are lost through fraud, especially when recipients
sell their benefits for cash at a discount to food retailers.
The USDA report notes that convenience stores and small grocers
account for 85% of fraud cases even though they only account for 15% of
all food stamp transactions. A newspaper in Sioux Falls launched an
investigation and discovered that 622 South Dakota vendors—ranging from
grocery stores to gas stations—are enrolled in the food stamp program,
which was renamed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to
eliminate the stigma associated with welfare.
The newspaper, the Argus Leader,
requested information from the USDA on annual payments for hundreds of
thousands of businesses nationwide approved by the agency to accept
SNAP. As is common among large federal agencies, the USDA refused to
provide the files which were requested by the paper under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA). The newspaper sued, a South Dakota federal
judge sided with the USDA and the paper appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
The USDA argues that a statute creating the food stamp program
requires businesses applying for participation to include income and
sales tax information that can’t be released. The agency claims this
also applies to money that retailers earn from SNAP sales once they are
enrolled in the government program. In siding with the USDA, South
Dakota federal Judge Karen Schreier ruled that the agency has the right
to keep the information secret.
Reversing Schreier’s decision last week, the 8th Circuit
rejected the USDA’s argument that the same federal provision protecting
retailers’ application information from disclosure also applies to how
much they are paid by the government once in the program. In fact, the
appellate court agreed with the newspaper’s argument that data collected
from businesses when they apply to accept food stamps doesn’t include
taxpayer money they get once they are enrolled.
“The department, not any retailer, generates the information, and the
underlying data is ‘obtained’ from third-party payment processors, not
from individual retailers,” the three-judge panel wrote in its opinion.
Besides, the appellate court points out in its ruling that “Congress
has clearly indicated its intent to involve the public in counteracting
fraud perpetrated by retailers participating in the program.”
There’s no doubt the USDA will spend more taxpayer dollars to appeal
so it’s unlikely that the agency will make the information available
anytime in the near future.
(Click link below to read more)
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- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
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