U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday officials are going to start cutting out the massive fraud and abuse within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The news comes after the Democrats’ government shutdown put some people in danger of losing their SNAP benefits.
While speaking about the program during an interview on Newsmax, Rollins said, “Here’s the most unbelievable news I have really just over the last few days, that 5,000 dead people, that was just one month. The number is closer to 186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check. Now, that is what we’re really gonna start clamping down on. Half a million are getting two.”
“But here’s the really stunning thing. This is just data from those 29 mostly red states. Can you image when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re gonna find?” she added:
“It’s going to 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. And that’s the next step here,” Rollins continued, per Breitbart News.
Meanwhile, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) has urged Rollins to expand her crackdown on illegal alien abuse and fraud within SNAP, Breitbart News reported November 9.
In a letter to Rollins, Hunt wrote, “It is of utmost importance that the American people are provided this data and that we respond to it accordingly in such a manner that puts the American people first, not last. My district is grateful that your office has already uncovered massive fraud in the SNAP system, exposing the truth we already knew — American taxpayers are being taken advantage of by the current status quo.”
Rollins reviewed data from 29 states administering the food stamp program while the Democrats’ government shutdown dragged on, and she found EBT cards that were carrying balances of over $10,000, cards that had not been used in years, and cards issued to non-existent people, Breitbart News reported November 5.
“Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as food stamps are formally known, has been around since the Great Depression but ballooned under the Biden administration and now serves 42 million people in the U.S., one-eighth of the population,” the outlet said.
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