Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Monday that the Trump administration will require every household receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to reapply as part of a nationwide effort to crack down on fraud.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the U.S. Department of Agriculture halted federal food aid on November 1 due to a lack of funds during the government shutdown.
SNAP supports more than 40 million Americans. Rollins stated that all recipients must demonstrate they still meet the eligibility requirements to continue receiving assistance. She described the move as a necessary step to restore oversight and protect low-income families who depend on the program.
“Business as usual is over. The status quo is no more,” Rollins said during an interview on Mornings with Maria.
Rollins said she identified SNAP as an early priority after taking office in February. She directed states to share data on recipients, calling the program “rife with fraud” but lacking clear documentation.
So far, only 29 states have complied with her request. Rollins said that even this partial data revealed widespread misuse, including 186,000 deceased individuals receiving benefits and 500,000 people collecting SNAP in more than one state.
USDA figures show more than 226,000 fraudulent benefit claims and more than 691,000 fraudulent transactions received approval. Fraudulent transactions include purchases that SNAP households did not authorize, often tied to card skimming, cloning, or other forms of electronic theft.
The losses continue to grow.
Stolen benefits cost the government more than $102 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. That figure rose from $69.4 million in the previous quarter and $31.9 million during the same period last year.
Rollins also said investigators uncovered “thousands and thousands of illegal uses of the electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card,” in a “Fox and Friends Weekend” episode earlier this month. She claimed the administration has removed about 700,000 people from SNAP so far and arrested about 118 individuals.
About 41.7 million Americans — roughly one in eight — rely on SNAP each month, according to USDA data. New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana have the highest concentration of beneficiaries, followed by Oregon.
Under former President Joe Biden, federal spending on SNAP reached record levels, topping $128 billion in 2021 and $127 billion in 2022 during expanded pandemic aid. The program cost $99.8 billion last year, with monthly benefits averaging $187 per participant.
Rollins said the government shutdown raised public awareness about SNAP oversight. “There are vulnerable families in America that need this program that aren’t getting it because of the fraud and abuse that now we’re going to work to fix,” she said.