Extend SNAP waivers

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides food benefits to millions, a mission that increased dramatically over the past five months.

The federal government allowed states to waive some application requirements for SNAP benefits when the country went into lockdown in March and unemployment soared. States were able to move quickly to provide food benefits to those who were now out of work.

Unfortunately, those waivers are set to expire in September and that could set off a wave of delays in approving or renewing benefits.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture should extend the waivers for several more months while states develop plans to deal with a backlog of renewal applications.

In an effort to speed up the process to approve people for SNAP, the USDA waived the interview requirement for new applicants and allowed states to push back the recertification deadline for families whose benefits were about to expire.

That allowed states to concentrate on processing new applications — and there were a lot of them. Pennsylvania saw an enrollment increase of 166,000 people since February — a jump of 9.6% — that brought the total number of people in the program to 1.9 million. Nationwide, enrollment increased by 17% during that period.

Without an extension of the waivers, state agencies will have to once again interview new applicants, a time-consuming process, while at the same time attempting to deal with the increased number of recertifications that are due.

Officials with the state Department of Human Services said they normally have to deal with roughly 50,000 recertifications per month. Because of the waiver, the number of recertifications now due has swelled. Officials estimate there are nearly 87,000 to be handled in September and 92,000 in October.

Compounding the issue is the termination of the $600 per week federal unemployment benefit. Without the extra income, many more unemployed people will now qualify for SNAP, and officials expect another spike in new applications.

With the department continuing to prioritize new applications — and the renewed requirement for interviews that accompany them — officials worry that there will be delays in processing recertifications, and those people could be left without benefits. Such delays would put a further strain on food banks as those waiting for SNAP benefits turn to other sources for food.

Rather than put people at risk of losing SNAP benefits or facing delays in approval, the USDA should extend the waivers, or at least extend the waiver on the interview requirement to speed up the application process. At the same time, state DHS officials need to come up with a plan for dealing with the increased number of recertifications that are due.

Millions depend on SNAP to provide food for their families. They shouldn’t be the victims of bureaucratic decisions.