United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2006-10-13 monographic deposited born digital 41 p. GA 1.13:GAO-07-53 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53 P0b002ee1803943a3 f:d0753 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53 GAO-07-53 Criminal investigation Databases Electronic benefits transfers Fraud Investigations by federal agencies Monitoring Program evaluation Regulation Government agency oversight Food Stamp Program Store Tracking and Redemption System Other Written Product A62125 Every year, food stamp recipients exchange hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits for cash instead of food with retailers across the country, a practice known as trafficking. From 2000 to 2005, the Food Stamp Program has grown from $15 billion to $29 billion in benefits. During this period of time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) replaced paper food stamp coupons with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that work much like a debit card at the grocery checkout counter. Given these program changes and continuing retailer fraud, GAO was asked to provide information on (1) what is known about the extent and nature of retailer food stamp trafficking, (2) the efforts of federal agencies to combat such trafficking, and (3) program vulnerabilities. To do this, GAO interviewed agency officials, visited 10 field offices, conducted case file reviews, and analyzed data from the FNS retailer database. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53.pdf GAO-07-53 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-07-53 Other Written Product GAO-07-53; Food Stamp Trafficking: FNS Could Enhance Program Integrity by Better Targeting Stores Likely to Traffic and Increasing Penalties; Criminal investigation Databases Electronic benefits transfers Fraud Investigations by federal agencies Monitoring Program evaluation Regulation Government agency oversight Food Stamp Program Store Tracking and Redemption System Public Law 103-66