It takes a year for a county case manager to become efficient in processing SNAP cases, Joy Bivens, deputy county administrator of Health and Human Services for Franklin County, Ohio, told House Agriculture Democrats during a Wednesday roundtable, and the SNAP application process is complicated and lengthy.

“With all these nuances, it is impossible to not have an error,” Bivens said.

The online system for processing SNAP applications and determining benefit eligibility takes three months to update to federal and state policy changes, she said. And until the system is fully updated with the policy changes, SNAP case managers have been manually reviewing cases, which increases the likelihood of errors.

In Ohio, where counties administer SNAP, officials don’t have access to real-time data on errors and accuracy, leaving them with little time to course-correct.

Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research and Action Center, said it was “unfathomable” that Congress did not include the extension in funding bills. While some states will be able to absorb the forthcoming costs, many won’t, she said. This leaves states with difficult funding decisions.

“This failure to act will increase hunger, strain already fragile state budgets, harm farmers and food retailers, and weaken local economies across the country,” FitzSimons said in a statement.