By Jack Phillips
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Sunday said that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, is “a broken and corrupt program,” after benefits lapsed over the weekend due to the government shutdown.
In an interview with Fox News, Rollins said that while the Trump administration is moving to get the program restarted, 21 states refused to hand over data to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on whether illegal immigrants were receiving these benefits. Thousands of cases of illegal benefit use were also found, dozens were arrested for SNAP fraud, and thousands of dead people were still receiving benefits, she said.
“And guess what? In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud,” she wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
After the second Trump administration took over, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched an investigation into SNAP fraud and abuse, said Rollins. She said her department asked all 50 states to send in data to the government for a review but 21 states did not.
Rollins suggested that if certain SNAP benefits are cut off, illegal immigrants will self-deport and added that it would change the outcome of the Census, causing House districts to be redrawn.
The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold payments to the food program starting Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make the payments. It was unclear when the debit cards that beneficiaries use would be reloaded after the ruling.
President Donald Trump said in a post on social media that he would provide the money but wanted more legal direction from the court, after which U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell in Rhode Island ordered the government to report back by Monday on how it would fund SNAP accounts.
Democrats demanded this week that the government fund SNAP, but Republicans responded by arguing the program is in such a dire situation because lawmakers have repeatedly voted against reopening the government since it shut down on Oct. 1.
“We are now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding, now 14 different times,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at a news conference Friday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) claimed on social media that “Trump and Republicans are illegally withholding SNAP benefits“ and that ”millions of children could go hungry.”
Trump has suggested that Republican senators, who hold the majority, end the shutdown by getting rid of the filibuster rules that prevent most legislation from advancing unless it has the support of at least 60 senators. Democrats have used the filibuster to block the funding bill in the Senate for weeks.
Republican leaders in the upper chamber, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), said they would not remove the filibuster, prompting Trump to again demand them to do so on Saturday night.
“Don’t be weak and stupid. Fight, fight, fight! Win, win, win!” Trump wrote in mostly all caps on social media, adding that Democrats would likely terminate the rule if they retake the Senate again. “We will immediately END the Extortionist Shutdown, get ALL of our agenda passed, and make life so good for Americans,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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