ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
IN 1994, a Vinton woman was convicted of welfare-fraud in a scam that involved $30,000 in federal food stamps. During the time she received the stamps, she had taken a Florida vacation, bought a new van and paid for a swimming pool to be built in her boyfriend's back yard.
Fraud, waste and abuse now account for $5 billion a year in the $26 billion food-stamp program, claims Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke. We doubt it's that high, outrageous anecdotes notwithstanding. We still remember Ronald Reagan's apocryphal stories about "welfare queens."
But there's no doubt the program has been subject to widespread abuse. As the new chairman of a House Agriculture subcommittee, Goodlatte plans an attack on that. Good.
The crime, after all, is not just that some people over the years have skimmed billions of dollars intended to feed the poor. Those who have defrauded the program also have eroded public support for a worthwhile endeavor, triggering congressional proposals to slash spending for it or end it altogether as a federal safety net.
The point, amid the zeal for reform, is not to forget that the overwhelming majority of food-stamp recipients are not crooks. Most are honest people struggling on low incomes, often the working poor, trying to feed themselves and their families. They shouldn't be penalized for the sins of others.
Indeed, many fraud-and-abuse stories don't involve food-stamp recipients, but unscrupulous store owners and others. If Goodlatte can help restore public support for the program by reducing abuses, he'll be doing a good turn for those who depend on food stamps to put food on their tables.
The 6th District congressman already has offered some ideas for the program's overhaul, some of which are included in welfare-reform legislation that's been passed by the House of Representatives. One, for instance, would require an agent from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to visit and check out the bona fides of those applying as retailers to accept food stamps. There have been cases where individuals registered P.O. boxes and even trunks of cars as retail stores to fraudulently get the stamps.
Says Goodlatte: ``We want to make sure that no one goes hungry in this country, but at the same time make sure that the food-stamp program is not being abused.'' Provided the first goal isn't overlooked in the push for the second, we applaud his effort.
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