Jessica Spillers

There are many things that concern me about this bill. The limitations on what one can purchase, the limitations on the department to seek waivers and discrepancies that are fully allowable per federal regulations, the revocation of Broad Based Categorical Eligibility, and the additional administrative burden for other items in this bills are unsustainable. BBCE has allowed the State to implement a streamlined eligibility system. It has eased staff burden at initial interviews and quickened our ability to determine program eligibility. To remove it would require a massive overhaul of the literal computer system by which eligibility is determined. Additionally, the department utilizes very few waivers, generally speaking, for SNAP, and typically occur in rare circumstances where the federal government has made a change to allow the State more time to implement a mandated change. Lastly, the requests for monthly reviews of death matches, prison matches, NDNH, etc. are excessive and are already done at regular intervals according to federal regulations. The mandates of this bill are simply put, unnecessary.