Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins revealed that her agency has uncovered thousands of cases of food stamp fraud, saying Democrat-run states have refused to provide data to the Trump administration as her agency investigates illegal migrants on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has removed nearly 700,000 individuals from SNAP and had about 118 alleged fraudsters arrested since President Donald Trump re-entered office this year, Rollins said on Fox News’ Big Weekend Show:
On her first day in charge of USDA back in February, Rollins sent letters to each state’s governor requesting data on who is using food stamps, as a nearly 40 percent “explosion” in beneficiaries occurred during the Biden administration.
“Of course, we know they were trying to buy the election, but that’s a conversation for another time,” the secretary said, before stating that 29 states have “complied,” with just two being Democrat-run.
Two states “sued us for asking,” Rollins wrote on X, without clarifying which states. An inquiry to USDA on Monday did not immediately receive a response.
Washington, DC, and 25 states filed a lawsuit against Rollins and her agency last Tuesday in response to the pause of food stamps due to the ongoing government shutdown, with Vermont and Nevada being the only Republican-led ones to join the suit.
In a Friday press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rollins noted that the only blue states to provide SNAP data so far have been Colorado and North Carolina.
WATCH — Mike Johnson: I “Pray” the Democrats Stop Making Americans “Suffer” with Shutdown:
“But in that data, and I haven’t talked about this yet publicly… We studied about $100 billion in spend. We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card. We have been moving people off of SNAP,” she continued on Sunday.
“What this conversation has allowed is a national spotlight on a broken and corrupt program,” she explained. “We found one guy in six different states getting a benefit. We found about 5,000 people that are dead who are still getting benefits. Like it is time to drastically reform this program so that we can make sure that those who are truly needy, truly vulnerable are getting what they need, and the rest of the corruption goes away and we can serve the American taxpayer.”
Rollins concluded her X post by arguing that the Democrat party has “turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens. They know if the handouts stop, those illegals will go back home, and Democrats will lose 20+ seats after the next census.”
“There’s a new sheriff in town. @POTUS will not tolerate waste, fraud, or abuse while hardworking Americans go hungry,” she added.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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