ATLANTA — Pressure is building for federal regulators and the state to come together and address a backlog in SNAP benefit renewals in Georgia.
The latest data from the state obtained by 11Alive show more than 36,000 renewals remain overdue.
That's down from 67,000 SNAP renewals that were overdue in April and May. Georgia's Department of Human Services has made requests to the federal government to utilize certain processes they say will more quickly fix the backlog.
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Those include using attended bots (i.e., bots operated by a human user) to automate processes without caseworker interaction and approval for ex-parte renewals (a term that describes an automatic renewal without any input from the SNAP recipient) when "necessary information is already known and sufficient."
Federal regulators and the state met again last Friday, appearing to make little headway on coming to an agreement over how to solve the issues.
A spokesperson from Georgia DHS told 11Alive federal regulators were "willfully holding up our attempts to streamline and expedite these applications/renewals."
"We are working as fast as we are allowed to under the circumstances dictated by their unwillingness to improve the process for the benefit of Georgia families,” a DHS statement said.
A spokesperson for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) meanwhile said the agency is evaluating four requests "involving emerging, somewhat untested technology" from Georgia.
“As these requests involve emerging, somewhat untested technology, FNS must first assess the allowability of the request in terms of statute and regulations and second, if allowable, determine to what extent the waiver may increase or decrease processing times overall for the State on a permanent basis,” the statement reads.
The agency is also looking at similar technology related requests from other states.