The House Ways and Means committee discussed and heard testimony Wednesday on a welfare fraud bill, with the majority of those testifying speaking against the bill while the bill author and state officials doubled down on the need for the bill.
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.
Most of the defendants are of Somali descent. Numerous other fraud cases are being investigated, including new allegations focused on child care centers.
In news interviews and press releases over the summer, prosecutor Joe Thompson estimated the total loss from all fraud cases could exceed $1 billion. Earlier this month, a federal prosecutor alleged that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.
Garten said the purpose of the bill is to close loopholes within Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as well as complying with federal requirements under President Donald Trump’s budget bill that passed over the summer.
“By tightening these loopholes and aligning our programs with federal law we guarantee that our safety net remains sustainable for the poor, the disabled, our elderly and our Hoosier children who rely on it and need it the most,” Garten said.
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.
Under the bill, 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.
Senate Bill 1 also establishes the time frame for Medicaid eligibility redeterminations, and requires the secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration 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 with 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 FSSA 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.
Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Mitch Roob said currently, there are no undocumented immigrants receiving benefits.
The department “is in violent agreement with this legislation,” Roob said. “In the words of Lady Gaga, FSSA is here for the applause, applause, applause,” Roob said, as the department applauded the work requirement for the Medicaid expansion population, the codification of Gov. Mike Braun’s Smart SNAP program, the end of the broad-based categorical eligibility for SNAP, the codification of the rural health transformation program, the efforts to prevent multi-state Medicaid enrollment and measures to enhance verification of citizenship.
Garten said he added the portion of the bill to report an undocumented immigrant to DHS as “a deterrent” to prevent undocumented immigrants from applying for benefits.
“My hope is anybody that’s thinking about this in the future won’t do it,” Garten said.
State Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster, said Indiana doesn’t provide benefits to undocumented immigrants. Garten said that didn’t matter.
“To me, that’s irrelevant. We’re legislating for the future and from this day forward, and so what we need to make sure is that we safeguard these safety nets and that they are only eligible for our poor and our disabled citizens,” Garten said.
State Rep. Ed DeLaney, R-Indianapolis, asked about a mixed-status household – where one parent is a citizen, one parent is undocumented and they have children who are citizens – applying for benefits.
DeLaney asked if the application would ask for information about the undocumented parent, and if so, then the undocumented parent would be reported to DHS. Garten said yes to both questions.
“The consequence is that a U.S. citizen who is the mother, for example, of two U.S. citizens is basically ineligible or has to take the risk of having their spouse removed from the home,” DeLaney said.
Garten said the reason the bill calls for the information about the undocumented parent is because immigrant households are “scrutinized at a lower level than Hoosier households,” because an immigrant household’s total income isn’t counted when determining eligibility for programs.
Garten said that portion of the bill aims to align all household income totals. DeLaney said there’s “one big exception” because the immigrant home faces the possibility of having a family member deported.
Later in the hearing, Garten clarified that the only people who would be referred to DHS would be undocumented immigrants who applied for benefits. So, in a mixed-status household, the undocumented parent wouldn’t be reported to DHS, he said.
State Rep. Danny Lopez, R-Carmel, said the bill states “promptly refer the applicant, recipient or household member of an applicant or recipient to the Department of Homeland Security.”
“If the household members are undocumented, I think I’m reading that right, they would be referred, which is inconsistent with how y’all answered,” Lopez said, addressing Garten and Roob, who was testifying before the committee at the time.
Roob said he focused on the Medicaid portion of the bill, not the SNAP portion, which has the immigration reporting requirement.
To further address fraud, Roob said Braun signed an executive order Monday to create an Indiana council on fraud detection and prevention in federal programs that state agencies administer.
State Rep. Gregory Porter, D-Indianapolis, said the executive order creating the council was “a 2.0” version of the executive order Braun signed in 2025 that stated a waste, fraud and abuse report would be released by Oct. 31, 2025, but it wasn’t.
“There is no report, nothing has been established,” Porter said. “I would like to see the original report, if there is one.”
Roob laughed and said he shouldn’t have brought up the executive order.
Along with Roob, 15 people testified before the House Ways and Means committee, with the majority of people testifying against the bill.
Tracey Hutchings-Goetz, with Hoosier Action, said the organization opposes the bill because it will leave Hoosiers “hungrier, sicker and poorer while making our Medicaid and SNAP programs more expensive to run.”
In talking to residents, Hutchings-Goetz said the organization has found that residents are scared of losing healthcare coverage and food because of paperwork errors and the increased complexity in the systems the bill establishes.
“Implementing the bureaucratic barriers to care in S.B. 1 will cause unnecessary suffering for Medicaid members as well as undue pressure on FSSA,” Hutchings-Goetz said.
Tiffany Nichols, with the American Lung Association, said that patients with lung conditions can’t afford gaps in coverage, which S.B. 1 does because “it creates harmful Medicaid coverage barriers.”
“These policies will increase the risk of people losing coverage because of administrative barriers, not because they are ineligible,” Nichols said. “There will be consequences if patients lose coverage or experience gaps in their care.”
State Rep. Christopher Judy, R-Fort Wayne, shared the story of his mother, a single mother of three, using food stamps in 1986 and feeling so embarrassed by it. In 1989, she went to college and became a nurse, he said.
“These work requirements are needed. This program is not to live off of. This program is to lift you up out of poverty,” Judy said. “My mother could’ve did nothing. We could’ve just sat on the government dole my whole childhood.”
Judy said the bill will help Hoosiers because he’s “seen it personally 40 years ago to see what my mother did to get us out of poverty.”
The House Ways and Means committee will discuss Senate Bill 1 again at a future committee meeting.
akukulka@post-trib.com
