In an emerging scandal, a South Carolina woman is facing charges after being accused of massive food stamp fraud, with authorities stating that she fraudulently received $56,762 more in SNAP benefits than she was supposed to, leading to her arrest in June after she lied about her income on her SNAP application.
For background, on July 8, 2025, the South Carolina Department of Social Services announced that Briana Renea Hunt Simmons, a 35-year-old resident of Georgetown County, had been charged with fraudulently receiving tens of thousands of dollars in SNAP benefits. Moreover, the department confirmed that Simmons is awaiting trial.
According to press accounts, Simmons is facing charges after she willfully refused to list the income of her husband on SNAP applications, leading to a surplus of $56,762 in SNAP benefits. Furthermore, jail records from the Georgetown County Detention Center reportedly indicated that Simmons had been released on a $5,000 bond.
Importantly, Simmons’ crime followed on the heels of a revealing statement from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who said at a Breitbart policy event that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was “ripe with fraud and abuse and corruption, adding, “$400 million of our taxpayer money is spent every day across our nutrition programs, just at USDA.”
Continuing, Secretary Rollins said that she was unsure if there was any program, clarifying, “There are others equal to it — that perhaps needs more reform than the SNAP program, which is the food stamp program.” She went on to explain that the Secret Service had caught individuals like Simmons who were committing SNAP fraud, which had allegedly led to “tens of millions of dollars” being stolen.
Moreover, the secretary said that her agency was “working to change that, of course,” referring to the alleged fraud within the food stamp program, adding, “There’s just a lot of work that we need to do. The fact that we’re just handing out all of this money without any sort of requirement of work for able-bodied, grown adults is sort of insane to me.”
Furthermore, in the wake of Secretary Rollins’ comments on SNAP, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders was one of several Republicans who vowed to actively limit SNAP-eligible foods in her state, saying that she “intends to pursue a SNAP Waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service that would support fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and protein and prohibit using SNAP for junk food.”
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Moreover, Utah’s Sen. Mike Lee (R) is also pushing for SNAP reform in his state, according to press accounts. Sen. Lee told reporters, “American tax dollars should not be used to pay for junk food and endanger the health of the most vulnerable Americans.” The senator added, “The fastest way to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ is to encourage balanced diets and stop subsidizing unhealthy food choices.”
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