State Officials to Report on Food Stamp Application Progress Today
Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) officials say they will give a full update later today on the progress towards solving a massive backlog in processing food stamp applications.Broadcast Version
Governor Nathan Deal’s latest public statement on the problem was emphatic and included a quick disclaimer. “We’re doing a great job. We’re getting ourselves out of situation that was created over a long period of time,” said Deal Wednesday. “And yes, I knew about it, but I did not know that it was of the magnitude that apparently it was.”
But Deal’s office has given few details and will not confirm whether it met the federal government’s mandate to reduce the backlog of 20,000 applications by the end of March.
A DHS spokesperson says the governor has asked it to apply for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expedite processing for some 2,700 Georgians who are in what DHS calls “the most dire situations.”
The USDA has threatened to take over Georgia’s food stamp program if the state does not solve the backlog and devise a plan to prevent it from happening again.
In a statement Wednesday, the USDA said it is now reviewing the state’s response to the March deadline and will provide results once the review is complete.
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