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A longtime foe of Bridge Card abuse among college students is setting his sights on the program once again from a new vantage point.

Rep. David Agema, R-Grandville, who last month became chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the budget for the state Department of Human Services, named college student fraud in the food-aid program as a top priority in the coming year.

Though Agema is not sure how many college students are abusing the program statewide, he said he fears the state is wasting millions of dollars annually to provide the aid to students who don’t need it. Bridge Card recipients use the card as kind of an electronic version of food stamps, and critics say students of well-heeled parents are using the aid to pay for food and using their spending money for booze and parties.

“It’s an epidemic,” Agema said Tuesday at a committee hearing. “You can get this just by (applying) on the Internet.”

House Republicans, who took control of the chamber this year, have pledged to put the DHS budget under the microscope in hopes of reducing program costs and finding other cost savings. Last month, they proposed capping the welfare benefits a family can receive to four years as part of an effort to address a $1.8 billion state shortfall for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Agema spent much of last year criticizing suspected Bridge Card fraud among college students, and, in October, the State Journal reported anecdotal accounts from mid-Michigan store owners suggesting that fraud among college students was widespread in the region.

In recent weeks, Agema said, he has heard from many parents in his House district who say they are astonished their child is receiving the aid in college

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/t3FazUyGNbM/NEWS