Maryland Senate committee probes agency leaders on food benefits enrollment, theft

Lawmakers pressed the state’s social services agency at a committee hearing on Tuesday for the cause of a steep — and growing — enrollment drop in the state’s food assistance program and increasing issues with benefits fraud. The hearing, convened by the Senate Finance Committee, marked a formal confrontation between legislators and the Hogan administration over mounting reports that food insecure families lost their benefits because of administrative obstacles stemming from within the Maryland Department of Human Services. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is administered by DHS, plummeted after the agency reinstated a federal requirement and administrative process, called redetermination, which obligates recipients to prove their eligibility every 12 months.