A store displays a sign accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food purchases on October 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin blocking food assistance funding next week for states run by Democrats that have not provided data on fraud in the program, Secretary Brooke Rollins told President Donald Trump at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The USDA requested data from states earlier this year related to their administration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, Rollins said Tuesday. She added that the data was needed to combat fraud, which she called “widespread” in the program that helps 42 million people afford food.
Most states complied with the request, but 21, mostly governed by Democrats, declined, she said. A USDA spokesman later indicated that the department was missing data from 22 states.
“Starting next week, we have begun and will stop transferring federal funds 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.
In an email, a USDA spokesman listed 28 states and one territory from which the department received data.
That would leave the following 22 states, all led by Democratic governors, that have not provided 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 spokesman provided some additional details of the initiative, including that the department was targeting 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 Democratic states, and if they do not comply, they will receive a formal warning that the USDA will withdraw their administrative funding,” the spokesman said.
Court records Show that the ministry sent a fresh data request to states on November 28 and asked for a response within seven days, i.e. on Friday.
The letter was reproduced as part of a lawsuit filed by the 22 states against the administration over its request for SNAP recipient data.
Leading Democrat calls threat illegal
It’s unclear what authority Rollins would have to block funding approved by Congress.
The federal government pays for all SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps. It shares administrative costs with the states.
The USDA spokesman did not answer a direct question about the legal authority to withhold funds.
Democrats on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee said any attempt to block SNAP funding was illegal.
“Trump and Rollins are once again illegally threatening to withhold federal funds,” said a social media post from an official committee Democratic account. “SNAP has one of the lowest fraud rates of any government program, but Trump continues to weaponize hunger.”
The committee’s top Democrat, Angie Craig of Minnesota, issued her own statement in which she also accused the administration of “using hunger as a weapon” and said Rollins “continues to spew propaganda.”
“Their disregard for the law and their willingness to lie at any cost comes from the top – the Trump administration is as corrupt as it is lawless, and I will not stand silently by as it wages the president’s campaign against Americans who are struggling to afford food in part because of tariffs and this president’s disastrous economic policies.”
SNAP scam
The data the USDA has requested from states includes eligibility verification of SNAP recipients and a variety of personal information such as Social Security numbers.
An early USDA review of data provided by the 28 states and Guam “shows that an estimated average of $24 million per day in federal funds is lost due to fraud and errors not detected by states in administering SNAP,” the department said in the Nov. 28 letter.
Avoiding these losses could save up to $9 billion per year, the letter continued.
But the types of fraud cited in some public statements from Rollins and the department are occasional, existing data shows.
A 2023 USDA report found that about 26,000 applications, about 0.1% of households enrolled in SNAP, were subject to administrative or criminal review.
People who are in the country illegally have never been eligible for SNAP benefits.
“The long-standing data sources suggest that intentional fraud by participants is rare,” said Katie Bergh, a senior food aid policy analyst at the left-leaning think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, in an interview in November.
Goal of the Trump administration
SNAP was a consistent target of cuts during Trump’s second presidency.
The issue was a focus during the six-week government shutdown in which the Gov has often been reversed but generally he resisted calls – from states, lawyers, legislators, etc Federal judge — to finance food aid.
Shortly after the government reopened, Rollins said in television interviews that she would operate force All recipients must reapply for benefitss, a proposal seen by program experts as a logistical challenge.
And the Republican tax and spending bill passed by Congress and signed by Trump earlier this year included fresh work requirements and other limits on SNAP eligibility that advocates say will lead to significant benefit cuts.
The law will also require states to pay a portion of benefits and boost the share of administrative costs for which states are responsible, potentially leading some states to reduce benefits.
