Legislators Tap the Brakes on TIERS

This Monday, a Texas House and Senate joint committee meeting discussed the potential expansion of the embattled TIERS system to cover more families receiving food stamps.

Following HHSC testimony on the planned rollout to more than a million more needy Texans, several public commenters asked the committee to consider implementing enhanced benchmarks before allowing the expansion, including a focus on the all-important federal law mandating timeliness.

Committee members, whose reaction to the plans ran the gamut from "concern" to "shock," asked HHSC to produce details of how the system would integrate new cases without exposing these vulnerable populations to TIERS' well-publicized problems.