The Alaska Division of Public Assistance is set to rely on out-of-state contractors to process food assistance applications amid a yearslong staffing shortage, Department of Health officials confirmed this week.

Under a longstanding federal statute, applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program must be reviewed by state employees. That is because "outsourcing functions of the SNAP intake and application process has resulted in more complex and cumbersome enrollment procedures," federal officials wrote in 2009.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday approved the state's request to use existing contract staff, who until now operated a virtual call center for the Division of Public Assistance, to also conduct SNAP eligibility interviews and perform other tasks they were previously barred from doing.

Since 2022, Alaska has struggled with a persistent SNAP backlog that has left thousands of Alaskans waiting months for benefits that should be delivered in a matter of days or weeks. The backlog coincided with a roughly 20% cut to staffing at the Division of Public Assistance.

While the division has struggled to perform its assigned tasks, including determining eligibility for food, cash, heating and medical assistance, staffing at the division remains far below pre-2022 levels.

According to a report submitted to state and federal courts earlier this week, Alaska had a backlog of 3,067 SNAP applications as of last month. That is far below the peak of a 15,000-case backlog in 2023, but despite ongoing court oversight, the pileup has not been cleared altogether, and thousands of Alaskans are waiting months for assistance.

Department of Health spokesperson Shirley Sakaye said Friday that the goal of using contracted workers to process SNAP applications is "to deliver benefits to Alaskans sooner and reach compliance faster, while we continue the process of recruiting and hiring state employees."

The division has struggled to keep positions filled amid what union leaders say is inadequate pay that has not been sufficiently raised. The state had 192 filled eligibility technician posts as of August, up from 155 in March. Dozens of funded positions remain unfilled.

"Our goal remains to manage this work with State of Alaska employees," Sakaye wrote in an email.

Since 2023, the Division of Public Assistance has relied on a contract with the Public Consulting Group, a Boston, Massachusetts-based firm, to run a virtual call center that fields questions from Alaskans. As of last month, the call center was staffed by 128 workers who reside in the Lower 48.

Those same workers will be tasked with handling SNAP interviews that until now were handled exclusively by division staff.

Division of Public Assistance Director Deb Etheridge said in a July interview that her goal is to eventually end the division's reliance on contracted workers altogether.

"There is no part of me that wants to continue that contract perpetually," Etheridge said in July. "What I want is to be able to manage the work with state employees in the State of Alaska. That's my goal, but I can't stop that (contract) right now, because what we would see is a slide backwards."

Etheridge said in July that "ideally" she would end the contract with the Public Consulting Group within a year, but "what matters most to me is, are we processing the cases timely?"

In a statement Friday, Etheridge said the project "is a short-term bridge to compliance and faster service, not a shift toward employing more contractors. This project does not add contractor positions. We remain committed to continue hiring Alaskans as State of Alaska employees to support this work for the long-term."

Under the draft plan, the state will begin by asking contract staff to review SNAP recertifications for elderly and disabled Alaskans. As of last month, only one in five recertification applications were approved on time, according to the court report. Eventually, contractor duties will be expanded to include recertifications for the entire SNAP caseload.

Nearly 70,000 Alaskans rely on SNAP for food assistance each year.

Union challenge

In a Sept. 2 letter from Acting Associate Administrator of SNAP Ronald Ward, Ward told state officials that he was waiving both federal statute and federal regulations to allow contracted staff to review SNAP applications.

"The distinctive geographic characteristics of Alaska have resulted in persistent difficulties with improving customer service, timeliness, and payment accuracy," Ward wrote.

The Food and Nutrition Service in the USDA "is approving this project as a temporary measure," Ward wrote, for a period of five years from the time of implementation. The state is expected to begin using contract workers to conduct interviews and other tasks within two to three months, according to the Tuesday letter.

But the change could face opposition from the Alaska State Employees Association, a union representing the employees who have until now been exclusively tasked with overseeing SNAP eligibility determinations.

Under the union's collective bargaining agreement, if the state seeks to outsource work to contractors it must first reach out to union leadership and conduct a feasibility study to "determine the potential costs and benefits that would result from contracting out the work in question."

In 2023, after the state first pursued a contract with the Public Consulting Group for the call center, the union filed a grievance on behalf of impacted division workers, alleging that the state did follow the required steps to pursue the contract.

An arbitrator eventually found that the state violated the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and ordered the state to pay $4.2 million to division employees for lost earnings.

Heidi Drygas, executive director of the union, said there are several reasons why the state should rely on its own staff to determine eligibility for benefits, and the state has yet to indicate it has conducted a study proving otherwise.

"This would be taking away Alaskan jobs for out-of-state contractors," said Drygas. "It will move money out of state."

Also, she said, when you "bring in a for-profit organization, it changes the motivation for the work that they do."

"These businesses have a different motivation in mind," Drygas said. "You have a higher level of professionalism when you have merit staff."

©2025 Anchorage Daily News. Visit at adn.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.