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USDA boss says ‘everyone’ will have to reapply for SNAP, cites rampant fraud

November 17, 2025 | | Print Article

The Democratic Party’s government shutdown may soon have an unintended consequence as a “spotlight” on SNAP benefits helped open the door for a requirement impacting “everyone.”

(Video Credit: Newsmax)

President Donald Trump’s return to the White House brought with it sweeping scrutiny of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. Now, after congressional Democrats have put millions at risk going without Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that continued receipt will require that “everyone reapply for their benefit.”

Appearing on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” late last week, Rollins addressed recent revelations regarding fraud in the program. Following reports that 5,000 dead people were benefiting, the secretary explained that those figures were from one month and that examination had found, “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”

What’s more, the available data only came from 29 red states that responded to her request, as the USDA also uncovered half a million people receiving two checks: “Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data, what we’re gonna find?”

“The fact that this spotlight shined on SNAP has allowed us to talk about it,” Rollins told Schmitt as she expressed, “It’s gonna give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it.”

Amid the discussion, the host raised a number of previously exposed fraud schemes abusing taxpayer-funded nutrition programs, including a $250 million scheme in Minneapolis and a grocery store in Chicago said to have stolen over $8 million in SNAP and WIC benefits. Rollins made note of one example where an individual’s Social Security number was being used to collect benefits in six different states, as she also noted 120 people had been arrested for SNAP fraud as part of a recent bust in Ohio.

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“There’s a lot of people already sitting in jail, but I think we’re just at the very tip of the iceberg with what we’re going to find,” she explained. “These are the things that we’re uncovering that, for years, no one has really ever dug into because the feds didn’t have the system in place to do it. But we do now.”

The secretary also made a point of addressing how then-President Joe Biden had increased SNAP funding by 40% suggesting, “they were trying to buy an election, trying to put more people into government programs.”

Contrasting the previous administration and the Democratic Party’s efforts to make more Americans dependent on the government, Rollins said of Trump’s effort to clean up benefits, “The president has made this a priority. We will fix this program,” as reactions agreed, “Overhaul and audit is way overdue!”

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Kevin Haggerty
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