Trending
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a $50.8 billion budget Sunday that allocates $7 million in funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud prevention measures.
Proponents say the financial benefit of the change will far outstrip the price tag. More than $15 million in SNAP benefits were stolen through skimming in 2024, according to the Office of State Inspector General.
The funding will be used to add chip technology to Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, making them less vulnerable to skimming devices that steal card data from magnetic stripes at point-of-sale terminals.
The funding builds on House Bill 2540, introduced by Rep. Dan Williams, D-Chester, majority chairman of the House Human Services Committee, which proposed adding chip technology to EBT cards to better protect recipients from fraud.
"Almost everyone carries a debit card or a credit card equipped with chip-enabled technology, so these protections need to extend to public resources as well," Williams said.
Williams said securing EBT cards against fraud provides greater protection for SNAP recipients while strengthening accountability for taxpayers, calling the measure a "universal good."
According to HB 2540, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) would send the new chip-enabled cards to SNAP recipients automatically, eliminating the need for a separate application. Current magnetic-stripe cards would continue to work while the state phases in the new cards.
A feasibility study by the DHS estimated that the total cost of the transition to chip-enabled cards would be about $14 million and it would take about 6-8 months to complete. The department said the estimate was recently reduced from an earlier projection of $17 million after working with its EBT vendor, Conduent, on a new approach to manufacturing and distributing the cards. Currently, there are just over 1 million active EBT accounts in the state, according to the study.
The estimated $14 million will go to implementing the chips into the EBT cards with technology vendor Conduent, distributing the new cards to recipients and covering administrative costs.
According to DHS, the $7 million state implementation cost may be eligible for a federal funding match, though the department is still determining the amount of any federal reimbursement and how the funding will ultimately be allocated.
Under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states that begin implementing chip-enabled EBT cards before Oct. 1 may qualify for a higher federal reimbursement rate than those that begin later. A spokesperson for Rep. Dan Williams' office previously said Pennsylvania could receive a 50% federal match if implementation begins before Oct. 1, compared with up to 25% afterward. However, DHS said it is still determining the state's updated federal match and allocation of funding.
HB 2540's co-sponsor, Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, the minority chairman of the Human Services Committee, emphasized the bipartisan support for the issue during a June committee meeting.
"There's nothing worse than when someone is in the checkout lane, planning to pay for their groceries with their access card, only to find out that their funds were stolen," Heffley said. "Seeing all of the money that has been stolen already, it's great that we're working in a bipartisan manner to get this done now."
Currently, Alabama, California, Oklahoma, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan have already issued chip cards to participants, whereas Arkansas, Oregon, New Jersey, New York and Virginia are in the process of implementing these chip cards, according to recent USDA data.