Combating fraud and waste in social welfare programs has been a clear goal of the Trump administration. After courting state attorneys general to join that mission, one state has officially stepped forward.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced on Tuesday a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to train a fraud-fighting team.
“It is critical that state attorneys be trained in how to hold fraudsters accountable,” Fitch said. “Working together, we can not only protect taxpayer dollars from this corruption, but ensure that vital safety net programs reach those most in need.”
Partnership
Mississippi appears to be the first state to enter this kind of partnership with the federal government.
The plan is to host a seminar for 300 state government lawyers, along with the USDA and Office of the Inspector General, to educate them about fraud.
“In support of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, USDA OIG is proud to work closely with all law enforcement partners to investigate fraud and hold offenders accountable,” Matt Wilkins, Special-Agent-in-Charge, said.
Fitch has already been working closely with the federal government on fighting fraud.
Last month, she met with Vice President JD Vance and the Executive Director of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in Washington, D.C.
While there, she presented a 5-point plan to fight fraud in her state.
While Fitch attended, 23 other attorneys general, mostly Democratic, from around the country skipped that meeting with the vice president.
Those AGs said they are committed to fighting fraud but received an invitation to the meeting on short notice.
What it means
“I always first have a few questions about what they meant by fraud in the context of all of this, because there’s different ways to define fraud,” Craig Gundersen, Snee Family Endowed Chair and economics professor at Baylor University, told Straight Arrow.
The announcement from the attorney general’s office did not go into details on exactly what kind of fraud would be targeted.
The release specifically mentioned federal nutrition programs, which include SNAP. The program, also referred to as food stamps, is regulated by the USDA but administered at the state level.
This partnership will likely give state-level attorneys a closer look at what federal regulators are talking about when they discuss fraud and waste.
“The USDA has enforcement mechanisms,” Gundersen said.
SNAP fraud is often committed by businesses rather than by the people who benefit from the program. Card skimming, card cloning and stolen numbers are the most common methods.
Fighting fraud
Mississippi had the 18th highest error rate for SNAP payments in the country as of the latest data.
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year made some significant changes to the program, giving states serious incentive to lower error rates.
Anything above a 6% error rate will result in significant financial burdens placed on the state.
“They definitely have an incentive to reduce their error rates,” Gundersen said.
If Mississippi’s rate stays at the same mark, its penalties could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
More than 150,000 people in the state rely on SNAP, or about 13% of households.
“It could be the case that Mississippi is particularly concerned with their error rates, and they want help from the federal government to work with them on this,” Gundersen said.
Some states have turned to gaming error rates to avoid those major penalties.
In her release, Fitch made it clear her goal is to protect taxpayer dollars from going anywhere other than where they’re supposed to go.
“Whether working with the federal government would help them do this, I don’t know,” Gundersen said.
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