U.S. Rep. Grace Meng is leading a bipartisan push to protect low-income families who fall victim to skimming and other forms of theft targeting their food benefits.
Meng has introduced the Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act, a bipartisan, bicameral bill along with U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), that would allow states to reimburse Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients for benefits stolen through fraudulent activity.
The legislation comes in response to a growing number of cases where fraudsters use “skimming” devices—illegally placed card readers on EBT payment machines—to steal account and PIN information from SNAP users. Criminals then use the stolen data to drain victims’ Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) accounts, leaving families without critical food assistance.
While victims of credit, debit, and pre-paid card fraud and unauthorized transactions are protected by federal regulations, SNAP EBT beneficiaries do not have the same protections, Meng’s office said.
Meng noted in a statement that Congress failed to extend a provision first introduced in 2022 to ensure that victims of SNAP fraud are reimbursed. As a result, states are currently not permitted to use federal funds to replace stolen benefits after Congress allowed the provision to lapse late last year.
Existing federal law, therefore, only allows for the replacement of benefits stolen between Oct. 1, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2024. The law also limits SNAP replacements to either the full amount stolen or two months of benefits, whichever total is less.
The Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act would permanently extend this provision to ensure state agencies continue to replace benefits and lift the cap on repayment to ensure the replacement is for the full amount stolen, supporting lawmakers said.
Meng described SNAP as a “lifeline” for thousands of New Yorkers but noted that several states across the country, including New York, have reported an increase in SNAP theft and fraud in recent years. Her office stated in a press release that New York has been more impacted by SNAP fraud than any other state, with scammers and fraudsters stealing millions of dollars from SNAP beneficiaries.
“Stealing these benefits from hungry families is unconscionable,” Meng said in a statement. “Beneficiaries in Queens and communities across the country continue to be targeted by scammers looking to steal their benefits.
“I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bipartisan, bicameral bill to ensure that no one who relies on SNAP to put food on the table goes hungry because their benefits were stolen by bad-faith actors,” Meng added.
Lawler, meanwhile, stated that the bipartisan bill would provide states with the necessary tools to make victims whole while also ensuring that tax dollars support working families and not thieves.
“No family in America should go hungry because criminals are stealing their SNAP benefits through skimming,” Lawler said in a statement.
Fetterman described SNAP as a critical lifeline for many of his constituents in Pennsylvania and said the bill represented a critical step in ensuring that “American families get fed.”
“It is despicable that thieves are targeting hungry families, like taking food from a baby’s mouth,” Fetterman said in a statement. “We can’t let vulnerable children go hungry because of these criminals.”
The Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act was co-sponsored in the Senate by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Peter Welch (D-VT).
