Judicial Watch has reported in the past how out of control the government’s food stamp program has gotten under President Obama and the fraud and corruption that’s plagued it. How bad is it? A few months ago a U.S. Senator, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, demanded an end to the madness which includes a partnership with Mexican consulates to encourage foreign nationals, migrant workers and non-citizen immigrants to apply for food stamps.

The program has exploded with a record number of people—46 million and growing—getting free groceries from Uncle Sam. Adding insult to injury, a federal audit revealed last year that many who don’t qualify for food stamps receive them under a special “broad-based” eligibility program that disregards income and asset requirements. This is sticking American taxpayers with a multi-million-dollar tab to feed hundreds of thousands of people who can well afford to feed themselves.

As 2013 gets rolling, the government reveals this month that in fiscal year 2012 it spent a record $80.4 billion on food stamps. That’s a whopping $2.7 billion increase from the previous fiscal year! This doesn’t even include other taxpayer-funded food programs for low-income populations like “Child Nutrition Programs” that received an additional $18.3 billion last year.

This insanity has been created by the president and his mission to eradicate “food insecure households” in the U.S. To accomplish it, the administration has spent millions of dollars on ad campaigns to recruit more food-stamp recipients, even doling out hefty cash rewards to local governments that sign up the most people. One state even bragged about a $5 million performance bonus it got from the feds for its “swift processing of applications.”

As a result federal spending on food stamps has increased every year under Obama, according to government figures. In 2009 the tab was $55.6 billion and by 2010 it skyrocketed to around $70.5 billion. Out-of-control government programs like this are always vulnerable to fraud and corruption and we’ve already seen evidence that it has struck this one, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Last spring the USDA Inspector General revealed that many food-stamp recipients use their welfare benefit to buy drugs, weapons and other contraband from unscrupulous vendors. Some trade food stamps for reduced amounts of cash. The fraud has cost taxpayers nearly $200 million, according to the USDA watchdog, which provided various examples during testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

A record number of people—46 million and growing—already get food stamps from the U.S. government and many don’t qualify for the welfare benefit. Earlier this year a federal audit revealed that many who don’t qualify receive them under a special “broad-based” eligibility program that disregards income and asset requirements.

As a result American taxpayers are getting stuck with a multi-million-dollar tab to feed hundreds of thousands who can well afford to feed themselves. How did this happen? The Obama Administration has promoted food stamps like there’s no tomorrow, asserting that it’s the government’s duty to eradicate “food insecure households.”

In the last few years the administration has spent millions of dollars on ad campaigns to recruit more food-stamp recipients, even doling out hefty cash rewards to local governments that sign up the most people. One state even bragged about a $5 million performance bonus it got from the feds for its “swift processing of applications.”

Finally, a U. S. senator who sits on the Senate Budget Committee is demanding that the administration stop promoting food stamps as if the program isn’t already bloated. In a letter to the agency that distributes the benefit, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions questions the agency’s partnership with Mexican consulates to encourage foreign nationals, migrant workers and non-citizen immigrants to apply for food stamps and other USDA administered welfare benefits.

The letter, addressed to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, mentions examples of the agency’s recruitment efforts and asks for the elimination of all materials training and recruitment efforts relating to the program. It defies rational thinking, Senator Sessions writes, for the U.S. to partner with foreign governments to place more foreigners on American welfare when the country is suffering through a $16 trillion debt crisis.

Records uncovered in the course of an ongoing Judicial Watch investigation show how the USDA is wasting taxpayer dollars as it works to fulfill its commitment to “a new era of civil rights” at the agency. A big part of it is making the agency more Latino friendly through a variety of costly programs that we’ll outline later.  

A USDA employee tipped Judicial Watch off about the agency’s nationwide compulsory diversity sessions months ago. JW immediately launched a probe, quickly filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records related to the training. The agency continues withholding crucial parts of the information and has heavily redacted large portions of the files that have been rendered to JW.

Never the less they reveal that the USDA has paid a Chicago-based firm called Souder, Betances & Associates nearly $200,000 in the last two years to undertake a “cultural transformation” of the agency. The company specializes in strengthening the world of work through diversity consulting and lists the following as its areas of expertise; Hispanics at work, race and gender, cultural competencies and healthcare disparities, among others

The firm’s principal owner, Samuel Betances, is a Harvard grad who describes himself as a “biracial, bicultural and bilingual citizen of the world.” Furthermore, Betances’ biography says he’s a “great motivator who rose out of the bowels of inner city poverty, stigma of minority group status, violence, welfare and illiteracy in two languages.”

One of the files obtained by JW includes electronic mail exchanges between Betances and a top USDA official named Vincent Loran. The first one, from October 2011, shows Loran promising Betances that he will keep secret a video of a training session shot on the USDA premises which the agency refuses to release. The other, from January 2012, shows Loran seeking Betances’ blessing, referring to him as a father, and professing his admiration.

The controversial diversity training seems to be part of a bigger plan to make the USDA more Latino friendly. In the last few years the agency has poured millions of dollars into programs that will help fulfill that goal, including $8.8 million to train underserved Hispanics for USDA careers and hiking cash awards for Hispanic farmers who claim the suffered discrimination when seeking farm loans from the agency. 

It’s all part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s costly effort to revolutionize the inner city diet by providing affordable healthy fare such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat milk in neighborhoods determined to be “food deserts” or poor census tracts with “low access” to a large grocery store. The feds even launched an internet mapping tool (Food Desert Locator) that identifies areas with “limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.”

To tackle the problem, Uncle Sam dedicates millions annually to a special Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) that also funds initiatives that create “new opportunities for Latino, refugee and immigrant farmers,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency that disperses the cash. This month the USDA announced more than $9 million in grants to organizations in dozens of states that will help improve access to healthy food. More money is available and will be doled out before the end of the year, according to the agency.

Of interesting note is that more than a quarter of a million dollars from this latest allocation will go to Chicago groups that will set up and increase awareness of farmers’ markets for low-income consumers. It’s a worthy investment because the money will “create new economic opportunities and encourage consumers to eat healthier,” says USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. The millions will be divided between more than 100 projects that “connect farmers and ranchers to new customers” as well as to support new opportunities for Latino, refugee and immigrant farmers.

In 2011 the USDA poured $10 million into FMPP, double the amount from the previous year. The funds went to agricultural cooperatives, local governments, nonprofit corporations, tribal governments and public benefit corporations. Additionally, the Obama Administration dedicated millions more to eliminating food deserts last year via a $100 million healthcare grant to “reduce health disparities” between minorities and whites.

A record 46.3 million people—including some illegal immigrants—get taxpayer-funded food stamps at an annual cost of $76 billion, according to the agency that distributes the welfare benefit, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This represents an increase of more than 16 million over the previous year, according to USDA figures. That’s because the administration is on a mission to eradicate “food insecure households.”

The effort includes a multi-million-dollar federal initiative to recruit even more food-stamp participants and hefty cash rewards for states that sign up the most people. A few months ago Oregon officials bragged that the USDA gave the state $5 million in “performance bonuses” for ensuring that residents eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications.”

As if that weren’t enraging enough, this week the USDA Inspector General, the agency’s watchdog, revealed that many food-stamp recipients use their welfare benefit to buy drugs, weapons and other contraband from unscrupulous vendors. Some trade food stamps for reduced amounts of cash, according to USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong.

Fong was testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She told the panel that in the last five years 779 probes have resulted in 1,356 indictments, 944 convictions and 792 sanctions against individuals and businesses that have cheated the system. The fraud has cost taxpayers nearly $200 million, Fong said.

The inspector general provided lawmakers with a number of examples. Among them is an illegal immigrant store owner in Connecticut who got deported after being convicted of food-stamp trafficking. He reentered the U.S. to open several stores using fake names. In Florida a group of criminals defrauded the USDA welfare program to the tune of $6.2 million, Fong said.    

Additionally, thousands of people who are not eligible for food stamps are getting them by lying or using the social security number of dead individuals. In a check of just five states, the IG found that 8,594 recipients were receiving “improper payments.” In one unnamed state alone, Fong said the ineligible collectors are getting about $1.1 million each month.

The IG pointed out that, when this sort of fraud occurs, “families do not receive the intended nutritional assistance and retailers profit at the expense of the American public.” It also does nothing to help meet the president’s goal of eradicating “food insecure households.”

The goal is to make amends to those who suffered discrimination when seeking farm loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency charged with doling out billions in reparation money. A few years ago black farmers got $1.25 billion to settle discrimination allegations and last summer the Obama Administration announced a new pot of “compensation” cash—$1.33 billion—for women and Hispanics.

Originally, under that plan, Hispanics who felt they were victims of USDA discrimination could get up to $50,000 to make up for their suffering. To get the word out the feds launched an impressive bilingual advertising and public relations campaign that includes national outreach tours by top USDA officials as well as Justice Department bigwigs because that agency is sort of overseeing it.

This month the USDA quietly increased the amount of money that each discriminated Hispanic farmer can collect by five times, to $250,000. The agency also announced an “updated claims process” that simplifies and speeds things up so the victims can get their government cash faster. Victims are encouraged to participate in the simplified process and are assured that there is no filing fee or other costs.

The updated process is part of the USDA’s efforts to ensure that all its “customers” have equal access to its programs, according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. It’s also part of the president’s mission to end discrimination at the agency. “The Obama Administration has made it a priority to resolve all claims of past discrimination at USDA, and we are committed to closing this sad chapter in USDA’s history,” Vilsack said.

Under Obama, the agency has served as a key tool to help minorities through a variety of costly programs, mainly the First Lady’s $4.5 billion effort to bring affordable healthy foods to inner cities nationwide. Under the plan, the USDA has dispersed huge sums of money to community groups that promise to make available affordable healthy foods in poor neighborhoods.

The agency has also allocated $8.8 million to train “underserved” Hispanic students to someday work for it. The money is paying for programs that tackle global food security and hunger, climate change, bio-based energy development, childhood obesity (Michelle Obama’s favorite topic) and food safety. In all, 20 “Hispanic-serving institutions” got grants to help the targeted population “develop a skilled American work force” that will someday join the USDA ranks.