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Texas is struggling to process the surge in SNAP applications

Priscilla Totiyapungprasert
| El Paso is important

Whistleblowers in Texas have been sounding the alarm about delays in SNAP applications since August, but some applicants are still waiting months to receive their food stamps.

More than 136,000 low-income people in El Paso County are eligible for food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to March data.

Recipients receive a set amount of monthly benefits on a card that they can use to purchase groceries at any store that accepts SNAP. Generally, people must renew their benefits twice a year, providing documentation showing whether they are still eligible.

Federal law requires states to process SNAP applications, including extensions, and provide benefits to those eligible within 30 days.

In March, Texas processed 61% of all applications and 59% of all extensions on time – a decline since September 2023, when congressional leaders, including U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso, pushed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resolve the delays.

More: El Paso man sentenced for involvement in Jan. 6 shooting. Capitol riot in Washington DC

The Food Bank of El Paso helps families with SNAP delays

El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank employs staff to help people expedite their late SNAP applications. A staff member sits next to the applicant and calls 211, the national number for social services.

April Rosales, site manager of social services at the food bank, said the nonprofit received 10 or more people each week during the fall asking about their months-long SNAP delays. This number has now fallen to around two to three people per week.

The escalation process went more smoothly, Rosales said.

Previously, after calling 211, the operator would ask you to either fill out a new application or keep waiting. Now an employee checks whether the application has the most current documents and expedites the case. Often an applicant must submit a new pay stub because their application has been in the queue for so long that the previously submitted pay stub is now out of date, Rosales said.

Applicants are typically approved within a week of escalation and will receive benefits retroactively from the date the application was submitted. The retroactive benefits are why she is trying to avoid resubmitting an application, Rosales said.

SNAP, Medicaid delays continue

Anonymous officials at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the state agency that administers the federal SNAP program, warned state lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott that delays by year's end were more than six months.

Jennifer Ruffcorn, a spokeswoman for Texas HHSC, said in an email that “the lead time is longer than normal” because of an increase in the number of SNAP applications and the renewal process for six million Medicaid customers over 12 months.

The number of SNAP applications and extensions in Texas has increased by tens of thousands since September, with the agency processing more than 200,000 applications and extensions in March, according to the state.

The Texas HHSC is also tasked with removing ineligible people from Medicaid following the expiration of a federal pandemic rule that allowed people to remain enrolled in Medicaid during the public health emergency. Before the rule ended on March 31, 2023, states could not exclude people from the health insurance program.

The effort to redetermine people's eligibility resulted in nearly 1.7 million Texans losing their health insurance by the end of 2023, mostly for procedural reasons, The Texas Tribune reported. There was also a backlog of SNAP applications.

More: El Paso man sentenced for involvement in Jan. 6 shooting. Capitol riot in Washington DC

Texas is trying to address the backlog of SNAP applications

Ruffcorn said Texas HHSC has used federal funds to invest in recruiting and retaining the workforce that determines benefit eligibility. More than 97% of qualified positions have been filled, she wrote in an email.

Last year, Texas HHSC submitted a Corrective Action Plan to the USDA outlining the problems and solutions of the past few years. The agency did not provide El Paso Matters with the plan or indicate what solutions it had already implemented.

The Austin American-Statesman and KXAN Austin reported in December 2023 that the plan calls for moving 250 employees from other projects to process SNAP and other benefit applications. The agency would also send 600 new employees to Medicaid training to speed up the process for combined SNAP and Medicaid applications.

Disclosure: Robert Moore, CEO of El Paso Matters, is chairman of the board of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank. The newsroom's editorial independence policy can be found here Here.

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