Senator Robert L. Hedlund released a statement on Oct. 6 detailing how he successfully fought for the inclusion of an amendment to reform the use of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards for welfare recipients and to combat abuses within the public assistance program during the Senate session Thursday Oct. 6.

Hedlund lead a bi-partisan group of legislators who argued that ongoing abuse in the taxpayer funded public assistance program has created the need for reform. The amendment, also sponsored in the House by Representative Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton), creates a commission to report to the legislature on fraud and abuses within the EBT public assistance program.

Recent Boston Herald articles and television news reports have highlighted the abuses the Commission would be seeking to curtail. One report points to over $200,000 that the Commonwealth’s welfare recipients spent on items such as alcohol, tobacco, jewelry, and a broad array of other luxuries just last year. The state has issued over 70,000 EBT cards to the families that the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) services.

The other side of this debate is the businesses that prey upon individuals with EBT cards, such as retailers displaying signs enticing consumers with EBT cards to buy their products, when in fact those products are luxuries being identified.

To combat these types of abuses the bi-partisan reform commission will consider remedies including, photo ID EBT cards to combat identity theft and misuse, instituting a monthly limit on the amount of EBT cash assistance that can be withdrawn at ATM’s, requiring stores to apply to accept EBT cards, and a host of other common sense provisions aimed at reducing the purchase of “luxury” items.

“This EBT amendment is a critical first step in empowering the legislature to end abuse in the public assistance program,” Senator Hedlund said. “At a time when taxpayer dollars are at a premium, abuses like these that have been clearly identified, need to be reformed.”

Hedlund’s measure was included unanimously in the final version of House 3737, a supplemental spending bill. If signed into law by the Governor the bi-partisan Commission would be expected report to the legislature on its findings by April 2012.