Michael P. Norton
State House News Service

Senate Republicans are calling for an oversight committee to convene a hearing on public benefits fraud in the SNAP program.

In a letter to Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight Chairman Mark Montigny, the five-person Senate GOP caucus on Wednesday cited $34 million in public benefits fraud identified over a three-year-period by the state auditor's Bureau of Special Investigations, with most of the fraud tied to SNAP benefits.

The senators also cited two cases recently brought by U.S. Attorney Leah Foley alleging "large-scale, organized SNAP fraud is occurring in Massachusetts" and a Boston Herald whistleblower report about the Department of Transitional Assistance.

Taken together, the senators said, the developments "present a clear pattern of systemic vulnerabilities that warrant immediate legislative oversight."

Sens. Bruce Tarr, Ryan Fattman, Patrick O'Connor, Peter Durant and Kelly Dooner asked the panel to examine DTA's fraud prevention practices and internal management directives, the impact of the emergency assistance family shelter system on SNAP program integrity; verification procedures for all applicants, including migrants residing in state shelters; and the state's exposure to federal sanctions or funding reductions.

The request for oversight from Senate Republicans comes on the heels of a push by the Trump administration and Republicans nationally to more closely scrutinize public benefits programs for fraud.

The BSI identified $12 million in public benefits fraud in fiscal 2025, Auditor Diana DiZoglio noted at a budget hearing last week.

"I believe it was roughly 1,700 of the cases that were investigated for the fraud that we looked into actually came from the Department of Transitional Assistance itself, so they are referring these cases over to us," DiZoglio said. "And about 1,400 of those cases came from our hotline, which is up on our website, or from people just contacting our office in another way to let us know that somebody in their neighborhood is potentially committing fraud or they know a coworker that they believe is claiming benefits that they're not entitled to."

[Alison Kuznitz contributed to this report.]