FOIA Friday: Records Show How Va. Is Trying To Reduce SNAP Error Rates

By Staff Report, Markus Schmidt and Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

January 9, 2026

One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in practice take the opposite stance, acting as if records are by default private and the public must prove they should be handled otherwise.

In this feature, we aim to highlight the frequency with which officials around Virginia are resisting public access to records on issues large and small — and note instances when the release of information under FOIA gave the public insight into how government bodies are operating.

Reducing SNAP error rates

New requirements in the latest federal funding package mandate that states have to significantly reduce the error rate of calculating and distributing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in order to still be able to receive the funding. The Virginia Mercury filed FOIA requests with the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health to glean information on how the state is working to prevent under or over paying recipients as gubernatorial administrations prepare to pass the torch.

Public records revealed the state is considering a $1.7 million contract with a company called KPMG that offers tax, audit, and advisory services. The company would help local social services offices improve payment accuracy.

Records also showed a group called the Virginia League for Social Service Executives expressed concerns about whether smaller offices would be able to handle the additional administrative burden. Out-going Gov. Glenn Youngkin earmarked $2.4 million in his budget that would go towards hiring 14 people to assist in those endeavors. It is not certain that Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger will keep that money in the final budget.

Lack of state funding could raise Richmond water bills following the 2025 water crisis

One year after the city of Richmond and surrounding counties went days without water following a winter storm that knocked out power and triggered a series of failures at the water treatment plant, the possibility of residents’ water bills rising looms on the horizon.

Following the crisis, the city made a number of changes, including creating a 10-year plan for water system upgrades. That plan cost totals $1.4 billion over a decade to improve the treatment plant, pumps, pipes and other projects across the city.

Mayor Danny Avula sent a request to Gov. Glenn Youngkin for $80 million in the state budget to help offset some of the cost that will ultimately be placed on water customers to cover the price of those projects. But Youngkin did not include the request in his final budget proposal.

The Richmonder requested documents that show just how much bills will be impacted if the state funds remain out of the budget. The mayor’s office rejected the request, citing them as mayoral working papers. Avula said in a press conference that conversations with the incoming administration are still occurring in hopes of the funding making it into the final version of the budget.

The Mercury’s efforts to track FOIA and other transparency cases in Virginia are indebted to the work of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit alliance dedicated to expanding access to government records, meetings and other state and local proceedings.

Potential racism and retaliation at Red Onion State Prison

Allegations of racism and abuse were raised by inmates at Red Onion State Prison in 2024 which launched an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General into claims of physical and sexual abuse, inhumane treatment, and poor living conditions.

In records obtained by the Virginia Mercury this week, most of the claims have been found “unsubstantiated” by the Correction’s Ombudsman. However, the allegations of racism and retaliation were deemed “inconclusive,” which neither proves or disproves their occurrence at the facility.

Office of the State Inspector General representatives visited the prison to conduct interviews about the claims made by inmates who had reportedly burned themselves in protest of the living conditions. Some of the correctional officers interviewed suggested they believed the inmates who burned themselves were attempting to get transferred to facilities closer to family, OSIG’s investigation relayed.

Inmates, their families, and activists have previously accused the prison of over-using solitary confinement. A legislative report in 2024 found that at least one facility in the state was not allowing inmates time out of their cells for the mandated amount of time when in solitary confinement, which in Virginia is referred to as restorative housing.

The new report by OSIG found that Red Onion was not in violation of the rules around the confinement and some inmates had refused the out-of-cell time. Investigators recommended that the prison make complaint forms more accessible to prisoners and offer additional education and health resources.

Efforts to reduce FOIA costs makes return to General Assembly

For years, Del. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, has filed legislation that looks to limit what public agencies can charge for public records and clarifies how agencies can seek court relief when faced with large or complicated requests.

The Virginia Mercury reported earlier this week that Senate Bill 56 would limit agencies to charging the median hourly rate of pay of their employees — or the actual hourly rate of the employee performing the work, whichever is lower — when calculating labor costs for producing public records.

Those in support of the bill believe it will prevent agencies from assigning high-wage workers to process the requests, which would curb production costs. The bill does carve out some exceptions to the rule.

Roem, a former journalist, has made public records reform a key priority for her term. She said the goal of her latest bill is to make records more accessible to the public so they may be used as a tool to gain critical information about government agencies.

This story was originally published by the Virginia Mercury. For more stories from the Virginia Mercury, visit Virginia Mercury.com.