ms. fong, you mentioned a 50% conviction rate. i would have been run out of office if i had a 50% conviction rate, and i don't think mr. cummings would have been hired as often if he had one. that strikes me as a low conviction rate. is it because you're negotiating a civil punishment instead of a criminal punishment? does the statute needs to be changed? what needs to be done so we don't swing and miss half the time? >> let me take a look at that data, because i want to make sure that i get to the right percentage, and i will provide that for the record. and when we do that we will also provide you with our insights on the. >> all right. and my final question for you is this. if i wrote the numbers down by, you said there are 900 cases, 600 of which are gives retailers. i think your energies and efforts should be directed towards retailers, what not to the total exclusion of individuals who are providing a market, if you will, for this kind of fraud. so what do your numbers look like on prosecuting individuals who either sell the

ms. fong. >> thank you mr. chairman ranking membercomments and members of the committee. i want to express my appreciation to you mr. chairman and too many of the distinguished members of this committee for your support of the federal ip community. you up in a worthy record of bipartisan support for contributions and you'd demonstrate it time and again through legislation, hearings and speeches your interest in our work. so on behalf of the entire community i want to thank all of you for your support. today you have invited me to test debate about usda ig work to protect the integrity of the s.n.a.p. program. to put this in context, the ig office and usda is responsible for providing oversight to all usda programs which currently number over 300. of course snape is the largest program in our portfolio with over $70 billion it has drawn much of our attention over the past few years. in the last two years alone we have devoted almost half of our investigative resources to addressing s.n.a.p. fra

ms. fong. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. chairman, ranking membering cummings, and members of the committee. at the outset, i want to express my appreciation to you, mr. chairman, and to many of the distinguished members of this committee for your support of the federal ig community over the past several years. you have a noteworthy record of bipartisan support for ig contributions, and you've demonstrated time and again through legislation, hearings, and speeches, your interest in our work, and so on behalf of the entire community, i want to thank all of you for your support. today, you've invited me to testify about usda ig's work to protect the integrity of the snap program. to put this in context, the ig office at usda is responsible for providing oversight to all usda programs, which currently number over 300. of course, snap is the largest program in the portfolio with over $70 billion, and it has drawn much of the attention over the past few years. in the last two years alon

ms. fong. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member cummings and members of the committee. at outset i want to express my appreciation to you, mr. chairman and many of the distinguished members of this committee, for your support of the federal ig community over the past several years. you have a noteworthy record of bipartisan support for ig contributions and you have demonstrated time and again, through legislation, hearings and speeches your interest in our work. and so on behalf of the entire community i want to thank all of you for your support tucht d. to day you have invited me to testify to protect integrity of the s.n.a.p. program. to put this in context. the ig office at usda is responsible for providing oversuiting to all usda programs which currently number over 300. of course, s.n.a.p. is the largest program in our portfolio with over $70 billion, and has drawn much of our attention over the past few years. in the last two years alone, we have devoted almost half of our investigative resources to addressing

ms. fong thank you mr. chairman ranking membercomments and members of the committee. i want to express my appreciation to you mr. chairman and too many of the distinguished members of this committee for your support of the federal ip community. you up in a worthy record of bipartisan support for contributions and you'd demonstrate it time and again through legislation, hearings and speeches your interest in our work. so on behalf of the entire community i want to thank all of you for your support. today you have invited me to test debate about usda ig work to protect the integrity of the s.n.a.p. program. to put this in context, the ig office and usda is responsible for providing oversight to all usda programs which currently number over 300. of course snape is the largest program in our portfolio with over $70 billion it has drawn much of our attention over the past few years. in the last two years alone we have devoted almost half of our investigative resources to addressing s.n.a.p. fraud.

ms. avery? no? president fong: thank you. commissioner miguel: we have the letter. >> i'm kelly con din, i'm the designer at the contract. i did interact with judith keyser -- our planner was also cc'd. she lives -- the reason that she was not notified, there's two reasons. the initial meeting was never required. we were not required to have any neighbor meetings. we've been meeting with the neighbors for nine months anyway. so not knowing that we've been meeting with with the association and cc'g 15 other people, personally me since december, is not the best excuse for a lack of notification that was never required in the first place. secondly, she lives more than one lot away, and her complaint is that she faces -- commissioner miguel: could we cut this off? >> she has a right to speak. commissioner miguel: on the

what are you all, i guess i will address this to ms. fong, what are you all saying with respect to that? and what can we do to combat that? >> we, as far as i know, have not received any allegations along those lines that would indicate fraud or criminal activity. i would defer to the undersecretary because i think it's really a policy question. >> i would be happy to try to answer. to the second part of your question, when you look at, first of all, consumers cannot buy hot food, period. they can buy frozen foods, and there are pizza chains that have been admitted into the program over time. i mentioned earlier, my testimony, one of the definition of who's eligible for the program in terms of the 231,000 providers is set in the statute through the farm bill. and it requires a minimum number of certain food groups is what referred to as the depth of require that i would like to see that strengthened. >> let me follow up on that maybe with ms. hatcher because we have the technology now in place through upc codes. we can actually determine wha