Dan Freedman is reporting for the Times Union U.S. Rep. John Faso continues to push what he says is a link between food stamps and crime, as part of an effort to impose stricter work requirements on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. The Kinderhook Republican claims the program is an easy target for fraudsters and drug dealers. Local sheriffs “tell me every drug dealer they arrest has a SNAP card in his pocket,” Faso said at a recent Ulster County GOP brunch in Kingston. Drug dealers aren’t “declaring any income,” Faso said, evoking scattered snickers in the audience. “That’s a lot of what’s going on.” The audio of the Congressman's remarks was captured by an opposition-research tracker for Democratic Super PAC American Bridge, according to Freedman. The comment was offered as an explanation for why he is leading the Republican push on Capitol Hill to strengthen work requirements in a program that subsidizes food purchases for 42.2 million people nationwide and almost three million in New York. Nevin Cohen, a City University of New York health policy professor who studies SNAP, said Faso and other Republicans are perpetuating myths about the program. Among the able-bodied who get SNAP, 75 percent work or are between jobs. The vast majority have children or older relatives at home. "...[T]hey have one or two breadwinners who work in low-wage jobs,” Cohen said. “They are poor.” A report last month by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service said fraud in the program is “rare” and that such cases “represent a relatively small fraction of SNAP overall.” DOWNLOAD or PLAY the full audio of Faso's remarks at the Ulster County Republican Spring Brunch 2018. Read the full story in the Times Union.