In a series of explosive comments, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has exposed rampant fraud in the SNAP program during the government shutdown. She stated that the food stamp program was nearly entirely “broken and corrupt” after reviewing data from 29 compliant states.
Digging into the data, she reported that she found EBT cards with balances of $ 10,000 or more, unused for years, issued to fictitious individuals, and one man benefiting from six states simultaneously. Fighting back, she said that over 700,000 ineligible recipients were removed, and 118 were arrested for thousands of illegal uses.
Explaining her findings, Rollins said, “It’s a broken and corrupt program. Thousands and thousands of illegal uses of the EBT card. We’ve got almost 700,000 people moved off,” adding, “and we’ve arrested about 118 people.”
Posting on X about the matter after describing it during an appearance on Fox News, Secretary Rollins said, “On my first day @USDA, we told every state to send us their SNAP data so we could make sure illegal immigrants aren’t getting benefits meant for American families. 29 states stepped up. 21 blue states refused — and two SUED US FOR ASKING! 🤦🏻♀️”
Continuing, she noted that huge fraud has already been found, saying, “And guess what? In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud. The Democrat Party has turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens.”
She then concluded the post by noting that the Trump Administration is not going to tolerate fraud, saying, “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.”
Watch her here:
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Echoing these comments, Andrew McClenahan, of the United Council on Welfare Fraud, noted, “I think it’s pretty telling when the Secretary of USDA calls it a broken and corrupt program. I think this has brought an appropriate focus. The net cost to taxpayers was a $28 billion increase under Joe Biden.”
Offering a sober view of the scandal, McClenahan noted, “In my experience, I’ve seen cards with as much as $20,000 on an EBT card. People are just kept on the program for years and they keep rolling these balances up, whether they’re using the card or not.”
Continuing on that point, she noted, “[The government] is supposed to expunge unused benefits after nine months, but if all you do is buy a stick of gum once every nine months, your balance stays on your card. Even if you are no longer on SNAP, that card is still good.”
Concluding her comments, she noted how many criminals have been caught. “We have been moving people off of SNAP. We’ve got almost 700,000 people, I think, that we’ve moved off just since the President took office. We’ve arrested about 118 people. So this has been ongoing,” she said.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video