Kansas Senate bill may add $17M to oversight of health and welfare programs
Kaitlyn Finley, representing the Florida lobbying organization FGA Action, says the Kansas Legislature needs to expand verification requirements for applicants of government food and health programs in Kansas. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of Kansas Legislature video)
TOPEKA — A Florida lobbying organization dedicated to shrinking enrollment in government health and welfare programs was the lone advocate of a Kansas Senate bill expanding the state’s eligibility confirmation system in ways costing taxpayers an extra $17 million annually and necessitating the hiring of nearly 300 new employees.
The objective of the bill endorsed Tuesday by FGA Action, an arm of the conservative think tank Foundation for Government Accountability, would be to remove unqualified Kansans from food and medical assistance programs financed by the state or federal government.
The Senate Committee on Government Accountability, or COGE, scheduled testimony Wednesday from opponents of Senate Bill 363.
FGA Action visiting fellow Kaitlyn Finley told lawmakers the bill would accelerate analysis of government records to search for fraud. She said the state’s safety net would be strengthened by forcing agencies to collaborate on data-matching work to confirm eligibility for Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other programs available to Kansans.
“The best way to protect the safety net for the long term is to verify eligibility upfront, keep records up to date and stop payments as soon as someone no longer qualifies,” she said.
The Senate bill would, for example, require information on household income to be extracted from the Kansas Department of Revenue and employment status to be drawn from the Kansas Department of Labor. Applicable residency information would come from the U.S. Postal Service. Death records would be acquired at the Office of Vital Statistics.
“Monthly or quarterly data matching isn’t about being restrictive,” Finley said. “If a recipient moves out of state, finds a higher-paying job, is incarcerated or passes away, state systems should be communicating with each other so the state can detect those changes immediately.”
Under the Senate bill, information at the Office of Vital Statistics would be analyzed monthly to confirm if a program participant’s name needed to be culled from a government program. The state’s Electronic Benefits Transfer portal, which distributes aid to individuals and families, would be relied upon each month for reports on out-of-state purchases indicative of someone who may have moved away from Kansas.
The Kansas Department of Corrections would report on identity of state prison inmates to the Kansas Department for Children and Families so new inmates could be stricken from government programs. In terms of applicant income, the Kansas Lottery and the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission would report on individuals who won in excess of $3,000. Existing state law mandates gambling regulators share information on people winning in excess of $5,000.
On a semi-monthly basis, the state Department of Labor would share information with other state agencies on changes in employment, income or assets of either applicants or participants in health or welfare programs.
The state Department of Revenue would divulge information from Kansans’ tax records about residency, wages and income.
The Senate bill would bring Kansas into step with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in 2025 by President Donald Trump. For example, Kansans would qualify for SNAP after Jan. 1, 2027, if they were 18 to 64 years of age, had dependents under age 14 and worked or took job training 20 hours each week. State law tied to SNAP has a work requirement for beneficiaries 18 to 54-years-old without children.
In addition, the Senate bill would seek to end the practice of “self-attestation,” which allowed a person in Kansas to submit residency, age or household size information on applications without supporting documentation.
Kansas has had difficulty with its error rate in processing SNAP eligibility and failure to improve could cost the state tens of millions of dollars.
“Kansans are generous people, but they aren’t gullible,” said Finley, of FGA Action. “They expect their tax dollars to be protected.”
Carla Whiteside-Hicks, director of economic and employment services at DCF, said the Senate bill’s additional scrutiny of applicants wouldn’t reduce eligibility mistakes among the 188,000 monthly recipients of SNAP in Kansas.
“Honestly,” she said, “I think it would increase our error rate.”
The Kansas Department of Administration projected the annual cost of implementation would be $18.5 million in the 2027 fiscal year and fall to $17.1 million in the 2028 fiscal year. The analysis said KDHE could need 192 more staff members, while DCF’s labor needs would grow by 96 personnel.
Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, asked how the government efficiency committee’s legislation could possibly shrink state bureaucracy if agencies have to hire more employees to complete verification work.
“That’s a lot of growing government,” she said. “A huge price tag.”
Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, said he didn’t understand why rooting out fraud required so many additional state personnel. “This fiscal note seems grossly exaggerated,” he said.