State seeking funding for new chip cards for SNAP recipients to reduce fraud, theft

SANTA FE — Amid a recent political tumult over food assistance, a New Mexico state agency is planning to make several security-focused changes to the cards eligible state residents use to buy groceries.

State Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo told lawmakers this week the agency will request an additional $5.4 million during the upcoming 30-day legislative session to replace existing electronic cards with chip cards in an effort to reduce theft and fraud.

“People won’t be able to exchange cards as readily” if the change to chip cards is made, Armijo said.

The funding would be part of the agency’s overall $116 million budget increase request for the coming fiscal year — a 5.6% increase over current spending levels.

Several states have already issued, or are planning to issue, chip cards to those enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The list of such states includes California, Oklahoma and New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the Health Care Authority is also planning to make changes early next year to the way replacement cards are issued, an agency spokeswoman said. The electric benefit, or EBT, cards are loaded monthly with a recipient’s approved dollar amount for buying groceries.

The Health Care Authority issued about 193,000 replacement EBT cards last year, through both mail and in-person requests, and the changes are intended to reduce the number of cards being issued, said spokeswoman Marina Piña.

“This change will help the state cut down on unnecessary card replacements and reduce the chances for misuse,” Piña said.

Some lawmakers have expressed concern over fraud and misuse of SNAP benefits in New Mexico, which has the nation’s highest rate of individuals receiving food assistance at about 21% of the state’s population.

Those concerns have been fueled, in part, by a recent investigation into EBT cards being traded for fentanyl in Sierra County. The law enforcement investigation was triggered by an overdose death in Truth or Consequences, according to a KRQE-TV report.

The case prompted Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, to ask the director of a legislative agency to expand the scope of a planned review of the state’s administration of SNAP benefits to include instances of fraud, waste and criminal conduct.

“New Mexico should step forward with transparency,” Brantley said in a recent statement. “The families in my district — and across our entire state — deserve to know that every SNAP dollar is going where it’s intended: to feed people in need, not to fuel the fentanyl crisis.”

Since November of last year, the Health Care Authority has received between 138 and 158 reports of stolen SNAP benefits or card theft, Piña said. Those reports range from card “skimming,” or when sensitive account information is unlawfully obtained, to outright physical theft.

However, top agency officials have been quick to point out such actions are not reflected in the state’s SNAP error rate, which measures the accuracy of each state’s benefit eligibility determinations.

New Mexico had the nation’s fourth-highest SNAP error rate as of last year — behind only Alaska, Georgia and Florida — and could face funding implications under a federal budget bill if the rate remains high in future years.

“We have a high confidence that we’ll be able to bring it down,” Armijo told members of the Legislative Finance Committee during a hearing at the Roundhouse this week.

Statewide, there were slightly more than 458,000 New Mexicans who qualified for SNAP benefits as of October, according to HCA data. That includes 168,000 children around the state.

Food assistance for those recipients became a political flashpoint this month after a federal government shutdown led President Donald Trump’s administration to freeze SNAP benefits.

In response, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued executive orders freeing up $30 million to keep benefits in place for a 10-day period. Once that funding was depleted, she called lawmakers back to Santa Fe for a special session to approve up to $162 million to keep paying for food assistance through mid-January.

Most of that funding will not be necessary, however, after Trump signed a bill ending the shutdown on Nov. 12.

But the fight over SNAP funding in Washington, D.C., appears far from over, as legislation filed Thursday by U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and other Senate Democrats would repeal funding cuts to the food assistance program included in the federal budget bill.