Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the days of runaway fraud inside America’s biggest food assistance program are officially over. She announced Monday that every single recipient of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will now be required to reapply for benefits, proving they still qualify.
Rollins said SNAP was one of the first things she reviewed after taking office because the system was clearly out of control. “Business as usual is over. The status quo is no more,” she said on Mornings with Maria. She said taxpayers deserve better oversight, and so do struggling families who actually need help.
Last year, SNAP cost nearly $100 billion, with benefits averaging about $187 per participant. Rollins said she immediately asked all 50 states to turn over updated data on recipients, but only 29 states — mostly Republican-led — complied. Even that partial data showed massive abuse.
According to Rollins, investigators found 186,000 deceased individuals still receiving benefits, along with 500,000 people collecting SNAP in more than one state. USDA figures also show more than 226,000 fraudulent benefit claims and 691,000 fraudulent transactions that somehow got approved.
Officials say most of these fraudulent charges came from card skimming, cloning, and other electronic theft, costing the government more than $102 million in the first quarter of 2025 alone. That’s up sharply from the $69 million lost the previous quarter — and way up from $31 million the year before.
Rollins said earlier this month that investigators uncovered “thousands and thousands of illegal uses” of EBT cards. So far, the Trump administration has already removed around 700,000 people from SNAP rolls and made 118 arrests linked to fraud.
SNAP still supports about 41.7 million people every month. The highest share of participants live in New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana. Large numbers also depend on the program in states like Oregon.
Under Joe Biden, SNAP spending soared to record highs — $128 billion in 2021 and $127 billion in 2022 — driven by pandemic-era expansions. Even last year, the program cost $99.8 billion.
Rollins said the recent government shutdown forced millions of Americans to look directly at the size and shape of SNAP. And she says people are fed up. “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.