Posted on 01/11/26
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 11, 2026 - Two senior state officials allegedly hatched a plan to maintain a high error rate on food stamp payments — rather than making every effort to correct the errors, as their department is supposed to do — to delay hundreds of millions of dollars in federal penalties, according to multiple whistleblowers.
Former employees at the Department of Human Services accused two of their superiors at DHS of crafting the plan to get the state off the hook for $240 million in new federal penalties. The penalties are tied to the state’s high food stamp payment error rate.
The plan was to “leave correctable errors uncorrected” to preserve or increase the error rate and secure a delay in penalties, according to a former employee who was a senior official in the office of the secretary. Former employees said the planned activity was fraudulent and ultimately harmful to taxpayers and those who depend on food benefits.
“We’re obligated to correct errors as we find them,” the former senior official said, adding, “I have raised this issue continually as part of something I think is wrong and corrupt.”
Neither DHS nor the governor’s office denied the allegations in multiple statements to Spotlight on Maryland. One of the accused officials didn’t deny the claims when contacted directly, and the other didn’t respond to Spotlight.
Food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provide food benefits to more than 680,000 Marylanders per month. Payment errors mean the state either paid benefits to someone ineligible or failed to pay benefits to someone eligible.
The accused officials allegedly discussed how they could take advantage of a loophole in H.R. 1, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law in July and allows states with high error rates in the 2026 fiscal year to delay financial penalties until fiscal year 2030.
One of the accused officials “seized on that idea as something that we should pursue,” according to the former senior official. The idea was that a delay could provide enough time for the penalties to potentially be canceled after President Donald Trump left office, or they could at least prevent repercussions on “Gov. [Wes] Moore and our current budgetary issues,” the former senior official said. The delay also could allow them to hand off the problem to a future administration, the whistleblower added.
“That’s not fair to set other people up to clean up your mess — a mess that you created,” the former official said. The person requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing future job opportunities after the department terminated the individual following a disclosure to the Office of Inspector General.
The former official said the accused officials had met “several times” and were working out how to execute their plan without alerting officials at the Family Investment Administration (FIA), which oversees the SNAP program.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the SNAP program at the federal level, described the whistleblowers’ report as “alarming.”
“It erodes public confidence in our nation’s largest nutrition program, further compromises its integrity, and is a slap in the face to the American taxpayer,” the spokesperson said.
Non-denials and mixed messages from DHS
DHS officials did not deny the whistleblower allegations in multiple statements to Spotlight on Maryland.
In late December, DHS Press Secretary Lilly Price noted that DHS has reduced Maryland’s SNAP payment error rate by almost two-thirds — from approximately 36% to 14% — since Moore took office. She added that DHS remains “focused on continuing to reduce” the payment error rate and that H.R. 1 “creates new administrative burdens for SNAP that not only make it harder to feed hungry families, but also makes it harder for states to reduce SNAP payment errors.”
Reached directly by phone on Jan. 6, one of the accused officials referred Spotlight’s questions to DHS Communications Director and Senior Advisor to the Secretary Ben Shnider. Spotlight told the official that Shnider, who was copied on Price’s emailed statement, didn’t deny the whistleblower allegations. Spotlight asked whether the official would deny them, and the official replied that Shnider “said everything I’m going to say,” then hung up.
After Spotlight sent a follow-up email to the DHS communications team regarding its non-denial, the team called on Jan. 7 to request an off-the-record conversation, which Spotlight declined. During that phone call, the communications team denied the whistleblower's allegations, and Spotlight asked whether the denial was on the record, given that there was no such denial in their prior emailed statement. The communications team said no and that it would send another emailed statement.
The second emailed statement was another non-denial that repeated portions of the first emailed statement and added a jab at Spotlight’s parent company.
“Secretary [Rafael] López will remain focused on how to best serve Marylanders, drive down error rates, and overcome newly imposed federal obstacles to benefits, while Sinclair will continue to malign the agency’s work in bad faith and continue to ignore the facts,” Shnider’s email said.
“We will remain focused on reducing our Payment Error Rate and feeding hungry Marylanders despite the malignant conspiracy to prevent us from doing our work,” he added.
The allegations come as López and his department face other controversies, including the now-discontinued practice of housing foster youth in hotels following the suicide death of a 16-year-old in the state’s care, and a recent audit highlighting other foster care issues. Lopez also pleaded guilty in December to driving under the influence.
In an emailed statement, Gov. Moore’s spokesperson Ammar Moussa told Spotlight, “Governor Moore has been clear since Day One: Reducing Maryland's SNAP Payment Error Rate is of paramount importance, both for the program's integrity and to ensure it better serves Marylanders. The governor's directive has never wavered and any implication otherwise would be in direct contradiction with the priorities of good governance and responsible fiscal management.”
Moussa added, “the president and his administration should answer for why they're engaged in the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history on the backs of our neighbors and friends who need the most help."
‘Very little room for error’
The former senior official and another former DHS employee who worked in the office of the secretary said they were in the room when one of the accused officials characterized the plan to delay penalties as a “brilliant” idea. The two former employees said the scheme was launched in late summer, shortly after H.R. 1 passed.
The former senior official said the plan was to ‘leave correctable errors uncorrected,” in order to preserve or increase the state’s payment error rate. One of the accused officials suggested the department could do this by failing to correct errors in “complex cases” where it was easier to hide the errors — such as situations involving adults who move in and out of a single household, requiring a recalculation of their benefits, the former official said.
The accused official also suggested not approving staff training on the new requirements under H.R. 1, saying DHS leadership could blame the lack of training on insufficient funds or simply let staff “figure out” the law for themselves, according to the former official.
The former official, who previously worked as a federal employee, said they told the accused official they believed these actions would be illegal.
Another former employee in the secretary's office said they voluntarily left their job due to “ethical concerns” and requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing future job opportunities. They told Spotlight on Maryland it’s important for DHS to correct payment errors.
“There’s very little room for error,” the former employee said. “People need their money to get their food, and there's only so much to go around for everyone, so being precise is that much more important.”
Alleged whistleblower retaliation
The former senior official, who was placed on administrative leave on Nov. 5, according to their termination letter, said they believe their termination was an act of retaliation for their disclosure to the OIG.
According to an Oct. 3 email forwarded to Spotlight on Maryland, the senior official informed a member of DHS leadership that they were making a disclosure to the DHS OIG about “unlawful and unethical conduct” involving one of the accused officials.
“I understand retaliation for this disclosure to you, to the OIG, as well as any subsequent disclosures of waste, fraud, and abuse is prohibited by statutory and regulatory law and is unlawful. I am engaging in protected activity here,” the email said.
The former senior official said they sent the email to create a “written record that he knew that I was characterizing myself as a whistleblower.”
In the former senior official’s termination letter that they provided to Spotlight, one of the accused officials cites “changes” they were making to the team, with no further explanation.
Asked about the allegation of whistleblower retaliation, DHS said it is legally restricted from commenting on personnel matters.
The former senior official provided records of their OIG disclosures to Spotlight. The OIG did not respond when asked if it is investigating any complaints related to the SNAP program.
‘Grossly unethical’
Despite significant reductions in Maryland’s SNAP error rate in recent years, the state still had the 10th-highest payment error rate in the nation in fiscal year 2024.
The former senior official said they thought it was “grossly unethical” to “undermine” the efforts of Family Investment Administration staff, who are “working day and night to drive down the payment error rate.”
The former official said they were motivated to come forward for the sake of Marylanders who rely on food benefits every month.
“It's not a small thing when people don't have money to buy food, and so that's my motivation,” the former official said. “I'm sitting right here talking to you, and I have a full cup of coffee, and I have toast, and I have more bread in my refrigerator. I don't have to worry about those things.”
The former official continued, “I have always lived every day as if people I don't even know that I pass on the way to work, that they're my boss, that I work for them. In fact, they pay me in advance to work for them. And so that's my motivation.”