A sign is displayed in a store accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards for grocery purchases through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on October 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin next week blocking funding for nutrition assistance to Democrat-led states that have not provided data on fraud in the program, Secretary Brooke Rollins told President Donald Trump at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
Earlier this year, the USDA asked states for data on how they administer benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, Rollins said Tuesday. She added that the data was needed to address fraud, which she described as “rampant” in a program that helps 42 million people afford groceries.
Most states complied, but 21, most of them led by Democrats, refused, she added. A USDA spokesman later suggested the department was missing data from 22 states.
“Starting next week, we have started and will begin to withhold federal funds from going to these states until they comply and they tell us and allow us to work with them to root out this fraud and protect the American taxpayer,” Rollins said.
A USDA spokesman in an email listed 28 states and one territory from which he said the department received data.
That would leave the following 22 states, all led by Democratic governors, that did not provide data: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
The spokesperson provided additional details about the initiative, including that the department was focusing on administrative funding and that the next step would be a formal warning.
Blue states sought to protect bad actors, including criminals and immigrants in the country without legal status, “from the American taxpayer,” the statement said.
“We have sent another data request to the Democratic States, and if they do not comply, they will receive a formal warning that USDA will take away their administrative funds,” the spokesman said.
Court documentation shows that on November 28, the department sent a up-to-date data request to the states and asked for a response within seven days, i.e. on Friday.
The letter was reproduced as part of a lawsuit that 22 states filed against the administration over demands for SNAP recipient data.
Top Democrats call threats illegal
It is unclear what authority Rollins would have to block funding allocated by Congress.
The federal government pays for all SNAP benefits, which were previously known as food stamps. Shares administrative costs with states.
A USDA spokesman did not directly respond to a question about legal authority to withhold funds.
Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture said any effort to block SNAP funding would be illegal.
“Once again, Trump and Rollins are illegally threatening to withhold federal dollars,” reads a social media post from the official Democratic Committee account. “SNAP has one of the lowest fraud rates of any government program, but Trump continues to weaponize hunger.”
The committee’s Democrat chairwoman, Angie Craig of Minnesota, issued her own statement in which she also accused the administration of “weaponizing hunger” and said Rollins “continues to spread propaganda.”
“Her disregard for the law and willingness to lie comes from the very top – the Trump administration is as corrupt as it is illegitimate, and I will not sit silently while she wages a presidential campaign against Americans who are struggling to put food on the table, in part because of this president’s tariffs and disastrous economic policies.”
SNAP scam
The data USDA has requested from states includes verification of SNAP beneficiaries’ eligibility, as well as a range of personal information such as Social Security numbers.
An early review of data provided by USDA from 28 states and Guam “indicates that an estimated average of $24 million per day in federal funds is lost to fraud and errors undetected by states in administering SNAP,” the department said in a Nov. 28 letter.
The letter added that preventing these losses could save up to $9 billion annually.
Existing data, however, shows that the types of fraud cited in some of Rollins and his department’s public statements are uncommon.
AND 2023 USDA Report showed that approximately 26,000 applications, or approximately 0.1% of SNAP-enrolled households, were referred for administrative or criminal review.
People in the country illegally have never been eligible to receive SNAP benefits.
“Long-term data sources indicate that intentional fraud by participants is rare,” Katie Bergh, senior food aid policy analyst at the left-leaning think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a November interview.
The Trump administration’s goal
SNAP was a consistent target for cuts during Trump’s second presidency.
The issue has been a focal point during the six-week government shutdown during which the administration he often turned away but has generally resisted calls – from states, advocates, lawmakers and federal judges — to finance food aid.
Shortly after the government reopened, Rollins said in television interviews that she would compel for all beneficiaries to reapply for the benefits, a proposal perceived by program experts as logistically demanding.
And the Republican tax and spending bill passed by Congress and signed by Trump earlier this year included up-to-date work requirements and other restrictions on SNAP eligibility that supporters say will lead to significant declines in benefits.
The bill will also force states to pay some of the benefits and augment some of the administrative costs for which states are responsible, which could lead some states to cut benefits.
