By Jill Nolin | Editor
Georgia was just put on notice that it is on track to have to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties under a key federal food aid program’s new rules if it does not improve its “error rate” — or payments a state makes that were either more or less than a beneficiary should have received. This penalty was included in the GOP’s big budget bill last year, and some critics say the punitive approach is intended to encourage states to restrict access to food assistance. But there are signs right now that Georgia is trying to improve its performance.
Georgia's high payment error rates could spell trouble for state leaders down the line as the federal government moves to shift more of the program’s costs to the states and punish them for mistakes. Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder
FOOD ASSISTANCE
By Maya Homan
Georgia could be on the hook to pay millions of dollars to maintain a key food assistance program if the state doesn’t drastically reduce its payment error rates, thanks to changes implemented under last summer’s federal budget reconciliation bill.
The program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, serves roughly 1.2 million Georgians per month. According to new data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week, the Peach State had one of the highest payment error rates in the country at 15.2%. That could spell trouble for state leaders down the line as the federal government moves to shift more of the program’s costs to the states and punish them for mistakes.
Rhode Island Democratic Attorney General Peter Neronha in Providence earlier this year. Rhode Island is one of 25 Democratic-led states plus the District of Columbia that have sued the Trump administration over its new work requirements for people who get their health insurance through Medicaid. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
HEALTHCARE
By Anna Claire Vollers
Twenty-five Democratic-led states plus the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration over its new work requirements for people who get their health insurance through Medicaid.
At issue is a “medically frail” designation that the states say is too narrow and will make it too difficult for ill and disabled people to remain on Medicaid.
They’re challenging the administration’s guidance on who can be exempt from the work requirements included in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the broad tax and spending measure President Donald Trump signed a year ago.
Georgia is subject to the new work rules.
Greg Lange of Bismarck, North Dakota, drops off his absentee ballot and his wife’s at the Bismarck Burleigh County Office Building on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
VOTING
By Jonathan Sherman
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a blow to the Trump administration and some Republican states that had urged the justices to require all ballots to arrive by the close of polls.
In a 5-4 decision, the court found that federal law does not prevent states from accepting late-arriving ballots. The ruling is a victory for Democrats and voting rights advocates, who had said setting a hard, Election Day deadline for ballot arrival would risk disenfranchising voters amid fears of deteriorating mail service.
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