SPRINGFIELD – Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, addressed in further detail this week federal concerns regarding the Commonwealth’s law requiring photograph identification for electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, issued to the heads of eligible households for purchasing groceries which operate in a similar fashion to a debit card.
“I’m somewhat disappointed with that. I was one of the sponsors of the photo requirement,” said DeLeo of the federal criticism of the state’s ID requirement. “One of the major issues I saw it necessary for us to tackle as a legislature – which we did and which received unanimous support – was cracking down on fraud relative to EBT.”
DeLeo said that he believed the rollout of the EBT photo ID requirement was going well prior to his reading about the federal criticism, which came in a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week. The letter threatened to pull federal administrative funding for the food stamp program unless the problems were cleared up.
“It’s appeared to be cracking down on some of the concerns we had, so quite frankly I was quite surprised at the federal criticism,” said DeLeo.
The photo ID requirement has created some confusion among retailers, according to the letter, claiming that some stores have turned away family members whose photographs aren’t printed on the card but are still legally able to use the benefits and that some elderly and disabled EBT recipients have also been turned away, even though they are exempt from the requirement.
“I intend to sit down and talk with the commissioner and have her address some of the issues that have been raised by the feds,” said DeLeo. “I’m not going to give up based on criticism. We’re going to make sure those who deserve benefits get benefits and people who don’t deserve benefits, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure they stop receiving them.”
DeLeo was in Springfield Thursday to tour the University of Massachusetts’ satellite campus downtown.
