House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North
Reading) released the following statement today after U.S. Attorney for
Massachusetts Leah Foley announced charges against four Massachusetts residents for SNAP fraud:
“At a time when so many families are struggling to put food on the table, it is an outrage to hear that taxpayer dollars meant to support such a vital safety net program are going to individuals who don’t qualify for or deserve assistance. Even more disturbing is how lackadaisical the Healey Administration’s response has been since it learned of this scheme. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Rhode Island officials uncovered clear evidence of fraud occurring within the SNAP program and notified Massachusetts’ Department of Transitional Assistance in June of 2024, which allowed DTA to identify $115,000 in fraudulent SNAP benefits that had already been paid out. Rather than immediately notifying the U.S. Department of Agriculture about this and trying to recover these funds, DTA simply shut down the accounts when it should have instead been working with federal officials to identify these individuals and prevent them from continuing to illegally obtain benefits. This is a disgrace and an indictment of the Healey Administration. The governor’s unwillingness to share information on SNAP beneficiaries with federal officials is unacceptable and opens the door to continued fraud and abuse. Governor Healey needs to correct this immediately by expediting the use of EBT card chips authorized by the Legislature last year and by directing DTA to take additional steps to ensure that taxpayer dollars are protected and resources remain available to those who are truly in need, not for those individuals who are trying to defraud the system. Those additional steps should include the implementation of an annual audit of DTA that would require a review of benefits, including out of state use, as the House Republican Caucus proposed during the Fiscal Year 2026 budget debate. I would also like to know the status of DTA’s planned investments in enhanced security measures like encryption and fraud protection that the Commissioner highlighted in his budget testimony last March. Ironically, Governor Healey has language in her Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal that would extend the length of time between audits of government entities from three years to five years. That would be a huge mistake and would only open the door to more fraud and abuse going undetected.”
