BOISE, ID – Last year, Gov. Brad Little said Idaho was one of the most efficient states at running the federal food stamps program.

In fact, Idaho had the second lowest payment error rate for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. That figure measures “the accuracy of each state’s eligibility and benefit determinations,” USDA says.

The number became a big deal because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. President Donald Trump’s cornerstone legislation tied SNAP payment error rates to how much states have to pay for SNAP benefits.

Idaho’s rate was so low the state didn’t have to chip in for SNAP benefits.

A bill advancing through the Idaho Legislature is meant to shore up Idaho’s SNAP verification. But critics worry it could lead the state to make more errors in administering SNAP by introducing more administrative work.

The bill, House Bill 730, now heads to the Idaho Senate, which would be the legislation’s last stop before heading to the governor’s desk. Sponsored by the chairs of the House and Senate Health and Welfare committees, the bill passed the House last week on a party-line 59-8 vote.

To implement the new work required, the bill’s fiscal note says $1.7 million is needed, including more than $1.2 million from the state’s general fund and 10 new full-time employees at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

The bill would require the state agency to track lottery winnings of households on SNAP, as well as check a range of data systems to verify income and SNAP use in other states.

The bill would also require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture “information concerning any household member for whom it is unable to verify eligible citizenship or ineligible alien status … regardless of whether such household member is applying to participate in the program as a member of such household.”

“This will likely result in error rates going up, and Idaho taxpayers needing to pay additional money towards that that is not necessary,” Idaho Fiscal Policy Center Policy Director Kendra Knighten said.

The only people to testify in favor of the bill were representatives of conservative think tanks, including one from Florida based-group Foundation for Government Accountability, which helped write the bill.

Idaho Freedom Foundation Senior Policy Adviser Fred Birnbaum the bill is about program integrity.

“You can’t really look at just a spot in time and say, ‘Well, our error rate is very low now and therefore it will always be,’” he said.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday voted to advance the bill to the full Senate. Democratic Sen. Melissa Wintrow and Republican Sen. Camille Blaylock voted against the bill.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.