Senator Vinehout argues against bill moving Foodshare fraud from state to counties

The Democrat from Alma said state shouldn’t need another program to limit misuse.

A bill that gives incentives to Wisconsin counties that identify fraud in the state’s FoodShare programs was debated in a committee meeting this week. 

Democratic Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma said the state shouldn’t need another program to limit misuse.

“That makes me wonder what the problems in the systems are,” she said. “Why is it that the DHS and the inspector general can’t catch this fraud?

“I don’t want to be paying twice to solve the problem. Maybe we can fix this at the state level. Or maybe it’s not working at all at the state level and we need to move it to the county level.”

The bill, introduced by several Republican senators, would require DHS to remove a person’s FoodShare account if it has not been accessed in six months.