ANNAPOLIS, Md. – House Republicans today issued a statement on the Department of Human Services Whistleblower report that alleges two senior officials in the Department of Human Services had a plan to maintain a high error rate on food stamp payments and take advantage of a loophole in the One Big Beautiful Bill that allows states to delay the payment of penalties.
“Maryland already has the dubious recognition as being a national leader in high food stamp error rates,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel. “That there is an alleged conspiracy by state officials to preserve or even increase these rates and push off the penalties down the road, or even to another Administration, is unconscionable. This must be investigated.”
This is not the first time whistleblowers have raised concerns about actions taken by Governor Moore’s Administration to defraud the federal government. In September of last year, an audit triggered by reports to the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Hotline found that the State Highway Administration charged nearly $360 million in expenditures to federally funded projects that were deemed unauthorized to minimize the deficit in the state’s Transportation Trust Fund (TTF). The initiated investigation found that from June 2020 through August 2025, there was a 3,523% increase in unauthorized federal fund expense, with the most significant increase occurring between July 2022 and August 2025.
The Republican Caucus has sent a letter to House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, requesting investigative hearings on the matter.
“It appears that officials within Governor Moore’s Administration are willing to bend the rules, if not the law, to get around budget challenges,” said House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy. “It appears types of actions are happening in multiple departments, and they do not look like isolated incidents. As legislators, it is our duty to provide oversight to ensure accountability on behalf of our citizens. The mismanagement by these state officials cannot continue.”
The Department of Human Services has been under fire for months following a scathing September audit of the Social Services Administration which found that, among other things, the agency failed to ensure individuals in positions to interact with foster children received background checks, lacked a process to periodically reconcile the Sex Offender Registry with its providers and vendors, and over-relied on the placement of children in hotels with unlicensed providers, with some hotel placements lasting up to two years. Just days after the audit was released, 16-year-old Kanaiyah Ward died in DHS custody in a hotel in Baltimore City.
In the weeks that followed, DHS issued a directive to end unlicensed placements, but the order was ignored just days after it was issued. It was at that juncture, in October, that House Republicans called for the ousting of DHS Secretary Rafael López – a call that House Republicans reaffirmed today.
“As we said months ago, Secretary López has been in his position for three years and has shown himself unwilling or unable to deal with the systemic problems in this department,” said Buckel. “A child has died in DHS custody, children in DHS care have fallen victim to sexual predators, while DHS has consigned other children in their care to live in hotels for years. Now, under his leadership, there are allegations of individuals in his department plotting to defraud not just the federal government, but ultimately the taxpayers. Enough is enough.”
