Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warned 21 Democrat-led states on Tuesday that she would withhold funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beginning next week if they do not provide recipient data.
Rollins issued the warning during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting after the 21 states and the District of Columbia refused to hand over data she requested in February.
“In February of this year, we asked all the states for the first time to turn over their data to the federal government to let the USDA partner with them to make sure the American taxpayers are protected,” Rollins said.
“Twenty-nine states said yes, not surprisingly, the red states,” Rollins added. “But 21 states, including California, New York, and Minnesota, continued to say no. So, as of next week, we will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply and they allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer. As Joe Biden was working to buy an election a year ago, he increased food stamp program funding by 40%, so now we continue to roll that back.”
Prior to her threats of withholding funds for the blue states’ noncompliance, Rollins touted the immense fraud her agency has uncovered from the data already provided to them by the 29 states.
There is “so much rampant fraud in a program that 42 million Americans participate in,” Rollins said.
Rollins added that 800,000 people of the 42 million recipients have moved off of food stamps and added that the agency found 186,000 dead people enrolled in the program and 500,000 people receiving double benefits.
“We had a couple of people receiving benefits in six states,” the secretary added.
DEMOCRATS IN 21 STATES AND DC SUE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER SNAP CUTS IN ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT
Rollins’s remarks came after the 21 states and the district sued the Agriculture Department on Wednesday, claiming that the department excluded many lawful permanent residents from SNAP eligibility under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The changes to SNAP eligibility and the rollout of guidance “have caused significant confusion” for the states behind the lawsuit, which argued that they “have been asked to implement new substantive, erroneous limitations on SNAP eligibility, many of which could not have been anticipated as they diverge from the text of the OBBB, in 24 hours.”