Senator Bergstrom Files Senate Bill 1310 to Address SNAP Error Rate

OKLAHOMA CITY – The SNAP (food stamp) error rate in Oklahoma is almost 11 percent. Should it remain that high, in another year, Oklahoma taxpayers will be paying a penalty to the federal government of about a quarter billion dollars annually.

Up to this point in time the federal government has covered 100 percent of SNAP spending on food, junk food, soda, energy drinks regardless of the failure of state governments to properly document that spending, to limit the errors in its reporting.

With the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, Congress is calling for some accountability, so any error rate above six percent will result in penalties in the many millions of dollars.

Yet other states around the country maintain SNAP error rates below 5.99 percent, some under three percent.

“When I met with folks from DHS, and specifically those overseeing the SNAP program, I was told they were coming up with a plan to get that error rate down,” Bergstrom said. “When I asked if the reason they had not already implemented such a plan was because there was no penalty from the federal government they admitted that was the case, even admitting it was because there had been no accountability. In other words, it’s okay to waste taxpayer funds if it’s federal dollars.”

Senator Bergstrom filed Senate Bill 1310 to rectify that situation.

“I want some accountability. It’s never okay to waste taxpayer dollars at any level of government. So, if the error rate is above six percent the DHS director and every SNAP administrator and supervisor should take a hefty pay cut, and the higher the error rate the bigger the cut,” said Bergstrom. “Should the error rate be below 5.75 percent then every employee on the ground dealing with that error rate should get a bonus, and not the administrators.”

The benefit of keeping the error rate below six percent for the administrators is they don’t suffer a pay cut.