An amended welfare fraud bill passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday in a 9-3 vote, with one Democrat voting in favor of the bill because he’d like to continue working with the bill author on amendments.
Senate Bill 1, authored by State Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, was filed to prevent fraud and contain state spending on welfare programs because “Americans are outraged by the billions of dollars of welfare fraud in our nation — and the Minnesota scandal is Exhibit A,” according to a press release.
Minnesota has been under the spotlight for years for Medicaid fraud, including a massive $300 million pandemic fraud case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors said it was the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam and that defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.
In 2022, during President Joe Biden’s administration, 47 people were charged. The number of defendants has grown to 78 throughout the ongoing investigation. So far, 57 people have been convicted, either because they pleaded guilty or lost at trial.
In news interviews and press releases over the summer, then-federal prosecutor Joe Thompson estimated the total loss from all fraud cases could exceed $1 billion. Thompson left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota this week over the way the investigation of the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross is being handled, according to the New York Times and Minnesota Star-Tribune.
The 24-page bill will end the state’s participation in the use of expanded categorical eligibility within the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, set gross income standards and countable resources for SNAP eligibility, and establish immigration eligibility requirements for SNAP.
If a SNAP applicant’s immigration status can’t be verified, the applicant’s information will be “immediately referred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for investigation and potential deportation proceedings,” Garten said in a release.
Undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for SNAP. The only non-citizens who may qualify are lawful permanent residents, or Green card holders; asylees; and other legal residents under temporary protected status, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Senate Bill 1 also establishes the time frame for Medicaid eligibility re-determinations, and requires the Secretary of Family and Social Services to transmit certain information to the federal government to prevent multiple state Medicaid enrollment.
The bill further sets income requirements for Medicaid, and modifies immigration status requirements for Medicaid, including presumptive eligibility, including an increase to 80 hours of work or volunteering per month, and the Healthy Indiana Plan, and requires the office to verify compliance of the requirements and report information to the federal government.
Under HIP, the bill modifies work and exemption requirements and requires the conditions to be met in the three preceding months before an individual applies. The bill directs the Secretary of Family and Social Services to verify compliance with the work requirements on an ongoing basis and at least quarterly.
Senate Bill 1 removes the 12-month eligibility period for HIP and requires semiannual renewal, and it sets an additional copayment for the use of an emergency room for nonemergency services and other services under HIP.
The committee amended the bill to include that candy and soft drinks can’t be purchased with SNAP benefits. The amendment further establishes the Indiana Rural Health Transformation Fund.
Senate Bill 1 is the Senate’s top priority for the 2026 session, Garten said, and ensures that the state’s “safety net” remains “sustainable for the Hoosiers who truly need it the most.” The bill would focus on “rooting out and protecting from future waste, fraud and abuse like we’re seeing in Minnesota.”
Senate Bill 1 takes three steps: ends broad-based categorical eligibility, verifies legal status and anyone found with illegal immigration status will be reported to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and aligns with federal Medicaid reforms, Garten said.
“Some may try to say this is cutting benefits. Let me be clear, this is about verifying benefits for those that are eligible,” Garten said. “It is about compassion for the taxpayer and fairness for the truly needy.”
State Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, asked Garten if Indiana has similar welfare fraud to Minnesota. Garten said he had “no reason to believe that,” but that Senate Bill 1 is a “proactive” bill to avoid fraud.
“We have to be extremely careful when we use certain terms such as fraud because it conveys a message to the public that Indiana has not been managing the program correctly and it’s infested with fraud,” Qaddoura said.
FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said the agency will be returning about $466 million this biennium into the general fund.
“We believe we have identified hundreds of millions of dollars of additional waste … that we will be going after aggressively,” Roob said. “We have a lot of work left to do as we move forward with work requirements.”
When asked, Roob said he “couldn’t put a number” on the amount of waste identified. But, Roob used the examples of the state’s Applied Behavior Analysis therapy, used for children with autism, and attendant care with funds shifting over the years.
“Unfortunately, when the federal government came in and audited us on ABA therapy it found a tremendous lack of documentation in that particular space,” Roob said. “We had nobody at FSSA in charge of ABA therapy.”
The agency is interviewing candidates to oversee ABA therapy now, Roob said.
Qaddoura asked Roob how many ineligible individuals are currently on the Medicaid program. Roob said “very few.”
State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, said the fiscal note of the bill identified that 3,000 households would be eliminated from the SNAP program under Senate Bill 1. Pol asked Roob how the state will address the removal of the households from the program.
“We will go through a redetermination process. If they meet the requirements of another categorical eligibility they will remain on the program. If they do not meet the components of that other categorical eligibility then they will be removed,” Roob said.
Emily Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, said that undocumented immigrants “are not eligible and have never been eligible for SNAP.”
Some noncitizens, like those with a green card, could apply for SNAP after a 5-year waiting period, Bryant said.
“This bill is going to add administrative costs to taxpayers and burdens to families who are at risk of hunger,” Bryant said. “We feel what we truly need is to find ways to reduce the red tape and paperwork to streamline SNAP not just for SNAP recipients but for Hoosier taxpayers who will soon be helping to foot the bill.”
Qaddoura said he voted in favor of the bill “with a caveat” that he could work with Garten to ensure the bill won’t harm anyone who is currently on the programs.
“If I learn differently, that any provision of this bill takes benefits away from people I will reverse my vote,” Qaddoura said.
Pol said he voted against the bill because of his concerns that those eligible for benefits will have them taken away.
“I want to make sure that this is not an effort to address something akin to treating dandruff with decapitation,” Pol said. “I want to make sure this is done as cleanly and efficiently as possible.”
The bill moves forward for consideration by the Senate.
