Among all the sections in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that will drive up the federal deficit, pour billions into defense and border security and cut federal spending on Medicaid is one item that shows Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was thinking ahead.
The senator said she successfully negotiated to add a provision that delays until at least 2028 new federal penalties on Alaska for its shamefully high error rate in processing SNAP benefits (food stamps) for needy people.
The penalties — if the state cannot solve its problems and reduce its error rate from the highest in the nation — could cost the Alaska treasury millions of dollars a year, a particularly painful added expense when the state already is short-funding public schools, child care, the ferries and so much more.
The bill, which passed the U.S. Senate and House by squeaky-thin margins and was signed into law by the president on July 4, shifts more of the cost of the SNAP program to the states. States with high error rates will be required to pay a portion of the benefit costs. As it is now, the federal government pays 100%.
With almost a 25% error rate last year — according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program — Alaska would be in the top penalty bracket, having to cover 15% of the benefit costs. That could add up to an estimated $38 million a year.
“My hope is that it’s not just delaying a bad price tag, but that we will be able to really get our numbers down, so we’re not paying the penalties,” Murkowski said in an interview with reporters after she voted for the bill on July 1.
“I think that there were some decisions made with staffing by the governor that really kind of knocked us behind, and we’re paying for that now with a very high error rate, and it’s causing penalties,” the senator said.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2021 cut more than 100 eligibility processing staffers from the budget for the state Division of Public Assistance. Since then, Alaskans have endured monthslong backlogs in decisions on their SNAP and Medicaid benefits, with lawsuits in state and federal courts and federal fines against the state for failing to meet standards.
Despite subsequent, inadequate efforts to recover from the irresponsible staffing cutback, the governor’s deep hole has hurt employee morale and hurt Alaskans.
The state will get a new governor in the November 2026 election; the new governor will have two years before the SNAP penalties take effect. Postponing the effective date for Alaska was thinking ahead and hoping for better.
Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.
