2858

VETOES

governmental agencies; providing that certain notice
of this Act be given to certain food stamp vendors;
and generally relating to food stamps.

May 17, 1976.
Honorable John Hanson Briscoe
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17 of the
Maryland Constitution, I have today vetoed House Bill
1978.

This bill requires a seller of federal food stamps
(1) to maintain certain detailed records of the sale or
distribution of the stamps; (2) to require identification
of a recipient of the stamps; and (3) to transmit a copy
of his records to the Social Services Administration on
March 1 and September 1 of each year.

The apparent purpose of House Bill 1978 is to
improve the accountability for food stamps by the
vendors, in order to discourage fraudulent activities in
the selling of these stamps. The bill would place a
further audit mechanism in the program with the State as
the auditing party,

The food stamp program is a federal program
administered by the United States Department of
Agriculture through the local governments. Although the
State Department of Human Resources is the State
supervising agency, the program is actually operated by
the local governments, which share the cost of the
program with the federal government.

I have received requests to veto House Bill 1978
from the Department of Human Resources, the Mayor of
Baltimore, the Maryland Bankers Association, and numerous
credit unions, for reasons that appear to me to be
entirely justified. They point out that there are
already in operation numerous regulations of the United
States Department of Agriculture governing the Food Stamp
Program that require detailed reporting by vendors.

The banks and credit unions form an important
network for the distribution of food stamps. Although
they receive some compensation for this service, it is
often not sufficient to cover their cost; and they act as
vendors more as a public service than as a business
venture. If they are burdened with the additional
reporting requirements provided for in House Bill 1978, a
number of these institutions have indicated their