By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- At least some people who have lost their food stamps in Arizona probably are eligible, the head of the state Department of Economic Security said Friday.
But Michael Wisehart said he can't quantify how many of the estimated 400,000 who were dropped from the rolls since Congress approved its budget law last summer -- including 180,000 children -- actually legally qualify for benefits but have for one reason or another been turned away.
Those cuts now leave only about 459,000 Arizonans enrolled in what is formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That amounts to a 47% decrease -- the largest in the nation.
Wisehart said much of that is due to Congress last summer enacting HR 1 which imposed new limits on who can get food stamps.
Under the new federal law, single able-bodied adults without dependents who are not working or otherwise don't meet other exceptions are entitled to no more than three months worth of aid every three years. With the law taking effect the day it was enacted on July 4, that immediately knocked many of them off, as the timing was retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025.
Also repealed are provisions which had allowed some who are not citizens to access SNAP benefits, including some refugees, those granted asylum, and victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.
Wisehart acknowledged, though, it isn't that simple.
He said that the federal law also puts pressure on he state to reduce its error rate to below 6% or face new federal financial penalties. That, said the director, has put more pressure on eligibility workers to do more to screen applicants.
And there's another factor in slow processing of food stamp applications that has nothing to do with federal lawmakers.
"Arizona invests less money than other states in terms of eligibility determination than other states do,'' Wisehart said.
"Obviously, some of what he said is true,'' Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh told Capitol Media Services. But he has a different explanation for the drop in enrollment.
"I think our massive decrease is caused by the fact that we had massive fraud in the system,'' said the Fountain Hills Republican.
What he offers as proof is the much larger decline in the share of Arizonans who lost coverage than the rest of the nation.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that SNAP enrollment dropped by 8% nationwide between July 2025 and January 2026. After Arizona's 47% drop, the next largest was in Georgia at 26%.
"How else can you explain that everybody else went down like half as much as we did when the same rules were applied by the federal government?'' Kavanagh asked.
Wisehart does not dispute that percentage difference -- and that all 50 states have to live within the same requirements of HR 1 that apply in Arizona and have to limit their error rates.
But he insisted that the sharper decline in enrollment here does not mean that Arizona has more fraud.
He said it's simply a matter that Arizona has moved faster than other states to revamp its screening and get that error rate down. And he expects, as the months go by, that other states will post similarly high rates of residents losing benefits.
"I will tell you that there are states, very large states, of both political persuasions, that are reaching out to us to say, 'All right, you're a little bit ahead of where we are, we're seeing the exact same trajectory that you all already have seen, what can you do to help, what can we do to help individuals,' '' he said.
All of which leaves the question that Wisehart said he cannot answer: How many Arizonans actually are eligible for food stamps but, because of issues navigating the system, have been unable to get them.
Wisehart there are multiple reasons that Arizonans have had a problem getting and keeping their food stamps. And a lot of that is simply because they couldn't get approval.
He said even before Congress enacted HR 1, DES was hobbled by layoffs, a move the state blamed on other federal budget cuts. That came at the expense of eligibility workers, with the agency saying that the number of employees who reviewed food stamp eligibility dropped from 1,370 in July 2024 to 880 last July.
That, in turn, resulted in a backlog, with people waiting longer to get qualified.
In response, Gov. Katie Hobbs in December tapped $7.5 million in federal funds left over from the COVID-19 pandemic to address the delays in processing not just food stamp applications but also to deal with those seeking unemployment benefits. But that money for staff is only temporary.
Wisehart, however, said this isn't just about having fewer eligibility workers. There's also the technology.
"We are also utilizing a system, an eligibility IT system -- this isn't an exaggeration -- that was built more than 45 years ago,'' he said.
Kavanagh scoffed at the suggestion that more eligibility workers are a key to improving and speeding up screening -- and getting people the aid to which Wisehart says many are entitled.
"So his position is that the more eligibility people you put in, the less fraud you discover and the more people stay in the system,'' the senator said. "I don't think I believe that.''
But Wisehart said that the staffing -- and a better functioning IT system -- is not just about getting moe people enrolled. He said it is crucial to comply with that requirement in HR 1 to reduce the error rate to below 6% and avoid financial penalties.
It turns out the state has a long way to go.
For the 2023-2024 budget year, that figure was 8.8%. And preliminary data shows that the rate for last fiscal year actually topped 10.4%.
Getting to 6% isn't just an academic question.
Right now, while the state is responsible for part of the administrative costs of the program, the federal government picks up the tab for the benefits. In March alone, the total cost approached $76.3 million.
Legislative budget analysts say if it turns out that Arizona has an error rate of between 8% and 10% in either of the last two years, the state will be responsible for an additional $139 million a year beginning in the 2027-2028 fiscal year. And if the error rate is found to be between 10% and 13.3%, the price tag goes up to $208 million.
To reduce that error rate, Wisehart said, meant there had to be changes in how DES screens applicants. And that included things like reducing the ability of the agency to allow people to simply self-attest to certain things like income, a move that resulted in applications being denied.
"Any time you require more documentation, it makes it both harder for the individual that's applying and harder for the person who's doing to work to assess the eligibility,'' he said. "Those two things have really conspired to create an environment where it is definitely more challenging to get access to needed SNAP benefits.''
And, by definition, that means more people whose applications were denied.
But Wisehart said it's important to put those numbers -- and the state's error rate -- into proper perspective.
"To be clear, these are not fraud cases,'' Wisehart said. "These are just where either the client didn't know specific information, or the staff, in the processing of hundreds of thousands of applications, didn't do it exactly right.''
And there are plenty of places, the director said, that can trip up the state.
"There are 48 categories of errors in SNAP,'' he said.
"We had to put safeguards in place to make sure we weren't making errors so we are able to get under the threshold,'' Wisehart said. "That led to some challenges in workflow. So there are some backlogs that we've been working through.''
Kavanagh said there probably are multiple factors that resulted in the high number of people who lost their benefits.
"But he seems to be staying willfully blind to large amounts of fraud, too,'' the senator said. And Kavanagh said most telling is that Wisehart, in explaining all the reasons for the sharp drop in food stamp recipients, doesn't even discuss fraud.
"Maybe we need a new director if that's the case,'' Kavanagh said.
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