This bill makes it harder for states to avoid penalties when they make mistakes paying SNAP benefits (the food assistance program). Right now, the government allows states to ignore small payment errors—up to $56 per case in 2024—when calculating how accurate they are. This bill eliminates that cushion completely, meaning even tiny errors will count against states starting in 2025.

The bill also requires states to actively collect money back from people who received more SNAP benefits than they should have. Currently, states don't have to pursue these overpayments as aggressively. Now they must recoup this money, and the more they collect, the better their penalty calculation looks.

Finally, the bill increases the financial penalty itself. When states have high error rates for two years in a row, they get hit with a penalty based on a formula. This bill doubles the penalty multiplier from 10% to 25%, meaning states that mess up will face much steeper financial consequences. Overall, this creates stronger incentives for states to be more accurate with SNAP payments and to chase down cases where they've overpaid benefits.

Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments Act

Feenstra, Randy

Snap Back Inaccurate SNAP Payments ActThis bill requires states to recoup any overpayments of benefits made to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and adjusts the formula for determining a state's liability rate for overpayments.As background, the SNAP quality control system measures how accurately SNAP state agencies determine a household’s eligibility and benefit amount and determines overpayments of benefits and underpayments. States that have comparatively high payment error rates for two consecutive years are assessed a penalty (i.e., liability amount). The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) must use a statutory formula to determine the liability amount.Under current law, FNS must set a tolerance level for excluding small payment errors in the calculation of payment error rates (e.g., $56 or less in FY2024). This bill reduces the tolerance level for excluding small errors to $0 for FY2025 and each succeeding fiscal year.The bill also requires state agencies to recoup any overpayments of benefits made to SNAP beneficiaries.The bill adjusts the liability rate formula to reduce the state payment error rate based on the percentage of overpayments recouped by the state. Further, the bill increases the multiplier used in the liability rate&nbsp;formula to 25% (from 10%).