Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that her agency found fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that helps feed nearly 42 million people in fiscal year 2024 at a federal cost of over $100 billion.
The news follows the federal government reforming the program by banning the purchase of junk food and soda in multiple states.
.@SecRollins on fraud in the SNAP program: "Very big announcements coming next week on this. We are cracking down. We now have a plan to fix it, and we're really, really excited about doing that for the American people." pic.twitter.com/1gZ7uxeBbw
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 13, 2025
SNAP benefits may be used to buy eligible food at over 261,000 authorized stores. Monthly benefit amounts vary based on household size and financial circumstances, and benefits are issued on electronic benefits transfer cards. States administer the SNAP program, but the federal government partially funds it and oversees the program.
Policymakers have long been interested in measuring and reducing errors and fraud in SNAP.
This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture busted a $66 million SNAP fraud scam, Townhall reported.
Program error and fraud can be organized into four main types: Trafficking SNAP benefits—the illicit sale of SNAP benefits by retailers and recipients; SNAP retailer application fraud, errors and fraud by households applying for SNAP—unintentional or intentional recipient actions resulting in incorrect SNAP amounts; errors and fraud by SNAP state agencies—unintentional or intentional state agency actions resulting in incorrect SNAP amounts; and SNAP Scams—fraud perpetrated by external actors against SNAP recipients resulting in the theft of federal assistance.
Enough is enough.
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) November 13, 2025
SNAP fraud is out of control and hardworking Americans are footing the bill.
In the states that shared their data, there were well over half a million cases of fraud — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Why are other states suing us for asking for the… pic.twitter.com/rS8NKcw9ia
Over 20 states refused to give SNAP data to the federal government, Townhall reported.
The 21 states that refused to send their SNAP data to the USDA are:
— Mike Netter (@nettermike) November 3, 2025
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
And, of… https://t.co/rCJg254bRt pic.twitter.com/BktoDa1KMB
In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated 11.7 percent or about $10.5 billion) of SNAP benefits that it paid were improper—meaning that payments were the wrong amount or otherwise should not have been made.
Rollins teased an announcement for next week.
.@SecRollins on fraud in the SNAP program: "Very big announcements coming next week on this. We are cracking down. We now have a plan to fix it, and we're really, really excited about doing that for the American people." pic.twitter.com/1gZ7uxeBbw
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 13, 2025
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