December 19, 2011 VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS: Julie Paradis Administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250 Phyllis K. Fong Inspector General United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250 The Honorable Jeff Fortenberry Chairman: House Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight and Credit 1514 Longworth House Office Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Frank D. Lucas Chairman: House Committee on Agriculture 1301 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Darrell Issa Chairman: Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 2347 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Re: Connecticut D-SNAP Program Dear esteemed officials and Congressmen: My name is Richard Rochlin and I am an attorney. Over the last week, I was retained by more than a dozen State of Connecticut employees who are among 800 state employees being investigated for allegedly committing fraud in obtaining D-SNAP benefits administered by the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) in September of 2011. The federal government provided Connecticut with $12.4 million dollars and approximately 22,000 residents (inclusive of the 800) received some form of benefit. As you might imagine, in the wake of a devastating storm, the response to the program was overwhelming and inundated the various DSS offices that processed the D-SNAP applications. In many locations, applicants waited in line for eight hours for a maximum benefit of $1200. (I have included a few of last weeks front page articles for your reference.)

In the course of my preliminary investigation which included interviewing over 20 recipients of D-SNAP benefits, the following scenarios were mentioned with great frequency: 1) DSS workers (some brought in from Child Support to assist in the overwhelming response) spending as little as 35 seconds to 3 minutes in processing D-SNAP applications; 2) DSS workers refusing pay stubs from applicants and insisting that workers were eligible based on inconsistent information regarding qualification for D-SNAP; 3) DSS workers providing completely different advice concerning eligibility across multiple DSS offices; 4) DSS workers telling applicants that even if they had money in the bank, the applicant could qualify if they had bills to pay; 5) Some DSS workers not turning away ANYONE; and 6) DSS workers utilizing an application form created in September 2010 which does not contain the same information provided to some applicants concerning eligibility. I have also had the opportunity to hear from DSS workers who processed the D-SNAP applications who told me the following information: 1) The DSS workers training in administering the D-SNAP program consisted of watching their supervisor process one D-SNAP application after which they were told to start pushing the applications through; DSS workers were able to give out D-SNAP benefits to illegal undocumented immigrants who presented expired identification cards; DSS workers were told that it was not necessary to verify social security numbers such that applicants could apply multiple times at different offices and not be denied benefits; DSS workers accepting applications on which children named Wall and Chimney were listed; and DSS workers warning their superiors in advance about the lack of training and ambiguity in the forms only to have their warnings ignored.

2) 3) 4) 5)

As an attorney, I believe that I am duty bound to report these allegations of systematic incompetence, misfeasance and abuse. It is even more telling that my allegations have not been met with substantive rebuttals but with vicious personal attacks (I have included an article which explains this in greater detail). The federal government provided the State of Connecticut with $12.4 million dollars for the D-SNAP program and it appears that Connecticuts Department of Social Services recklessly violated the guidelines established by the federal government and the most basic principles of administering an assistance program. It should come as no surprise that D-SNAP was administered in this manner given Connecticuts history of playing fast and loose with federal taxpayers dollars. Recall that in February of this year, James Arena-DeRosa, Northeast Regional Administrator: USDA Food and Nutrition Service, offered testimony to the Connecticut legislature (and issued a report) which in which he testified as follows: Twenty-Six percent of cases in which food stamps were denied or cut off were the result of errors;

Fewer than 60 percent of applications were processed in a timely manner; The rate of inaccurate benefit payments was second-worst in the country

Former DSS Commissioner Michael Starkowski noted in his testimony to the Connecticut State Legislature as follows: The underinvestment that weve made in the staff and the underinvestment that weve made in the technology has come home to roost. At such time, Mr. Starkowski also notes that the DSS staff had dwindled 19 percent since 2001 and he was only allowed to hire 58 workers to evaluate applicant eligibility after losing in a 2009 early-retirement incentive program. With respect to the technology DSS workers use to process SNAP applications, Mr. Starkowski referred to it as our dinosaur. The system was designed in 1989 (yes, 1989) and uses a programming language so outdated it can take three to six months to a make a change in how it works. USDA officials also made note of the fact that many other states have workers specialize in a part of the SNAP application process (e.g., verification, eligibility, etc.), but that Connecticuts workers who once specialized in SNAP applications now have other duties in addition to processing SNAP applications. They noted that no other state in the region has taken this approach. The purpose of my letter is make you aware of this particular situation and to ask you to open an investigation into this matter. I can make many recipients of the D-SNAP benefits available to you so that you can hear their stories firsthand. With federal resources stretched to capacity, there is no better time for the federal government to investigate these allegations fairly and completely. Please contact me should you have any questions. My information is set forth on the first page of this letter. I thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Richard Rochlin