ANDERSON — The state’s food stamp program might not be doing as badly as earlier thought.

On Wednesday, the Indiana Family and Social Services Agency released a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture correcting an earlier letter that reprimanded the state’s timeliness in processing food stamps.

In a June 23 letter, Ollice Holden of the USDA wrote that the state had failed to meet federal standards for timeliness from March 2007 to August 2007.

The state registered an 82.94 percent timeliness rate in processing the benefits. States that fall below a 90 percent timeliness rate must implement a corrective action plan which must be followed until the state reaches 95 percent timeliness.

On Aug. 19, the USDA released a new letter noting that the June 23 letter did not include data from August 2007 to January 2008 that showed marked improvement in the state’s timeliness rate.

During this period, the state registered 88.67 percent, an improvement of 5.73 percent.

FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said the letter corrects an error that misrepresented the state’s ability to process food stamps.

“What this letter tells us is that, first of all, that the system is operating better than it did before,” Roob said. “Secondly, that the tone of the letter on the 23rd was created in part by the numbers and those numbers were frankly and fairly a substantial error. They left out six months of data in which we were performing better.”

When the letter was released last month, the story broke big in area news media outlets.

“There’s been a lot of hubbub about a letter that was based on incomplete data and, honestly, reporting that I think jumped the gun substantially,” Roob said. “There have been a series of errors here, and they are very regrettable. Those errors have resulted in a lot of people with egg on their face.”

The state still falls below federal requirements.

According to the letter by Holden, “While FNS is encouraged by this progress in application processing timeliness, data from both six-month reporting periods demonstrate a need for continued improvement.”

Roob said the state was falling below federal standards because the federal government expects a 30-day processing deadline while the state maintains a 60-day standard. “For years, we’ve been well-below 90.”

The extra 30 days, Roob said, is meant to allow clients more time to turn in their applications.

In a statement released Wednesday, FSSA officials announced that they will hold a public hearing Sept. 4 to determine whether to change the state deadline to 30 days, aligning with federal standards.