Posted on Friday, November 7, 2025
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by Sarah Katherine Sisk
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1 Comments
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Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) officially lapsed on November 1 as a result of Democrats’ refusal to reopen the government, marking the first time in the program’s 60-year history that recipients have missed payments. But amid the unfortunate reality of many needy families going hungry, the hysteria over lapsed payments also ignited debate over fraud in the program.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has reported that investigators have found “thousands and thousands” of illegal uses of electronic benefit cards, including 5,000 deceased recipients still drawing payments. Since the agency’s audit began, about 700,000 individuals have been removed from the rolls, and more than 100 people have been arrested.
Long one of Washington’s most expensive welfare programs, the number of Americans on SNAP exploded during the Biden administration. An astonishing 42 million people (roughly one in eight households) now receive SNAP benefits, costing taxpayers more than $100 billion per year.
SNAP spending has nearly doubled since 2019, climbing from about $63 billion to $127 billion by 2023, according to the Cato Institute. The program is federally funded but run by the states, an arrangement that leaves wide gaps in oversight and data sharing.
COVID-19-era policies like extra allotments, suspended work rules, and delayed recertifications kept millions enrolled long after the pandemic faded. A 21 percent permanent hike in benefits through the Thrifty Food Plan sealed in higher costs. Critics note that geographic areas with heavy SNAP participation also suffer higher obesity and diabetes rates, fueling calls to tie benefits more closely to nutrition and employment.
The administration’s deeper audits have begun to expose how SNAP fraud works in practice, not just in theory. After the Department of Agriculture requested data from states on just who exactly is receiving the benefits, 21 states – all led by Democrats – either refused to respond or sued the administration. As Rollins pointed out, the states should have nothing to hide unless there are people on the program who shouldn’t be.
The evidence of fraud is everywhere. In May, the Justice Department charged six people, including a USDA employee, with running a $66 million fraud and bribery ring, one of the largest food stamp-related cases on record. Investigators said confidential store-license numbers were sold to ineligible retailers to process fake EBT transactions and pocket federal funds.
The USDA Inspector General estimated another $10.5 billion in improper payments last year, with nearly 177,000 fraud incidents logged in early 2024, many tied to card-skimming and cloned EBT accounts.
Fox News’ Will Cain outlined the everyday scams that result in stolen taxpayer dollars: cashiers ringing up phantom grocery sales and handing out cash, recipients selling card balances, and applicants falsifying income statements. Smaller prosecutions tell the same story, including one Michigan baker accused of diverting $20,000 in benefits to stock her bakery.
A flood of viral clips on social media provides more evidence of fraud and alleged EBT trafficking. In some cases, SNAP recipients have threatened robbery and violence if their benefits stop.
One silver lining of the shutdown could be that it may serve as an impetus for SNAP reform. Part of the administration’s goal, Rollins said, is to rebuild accountability. She has ordered a full audit of eligibility and directed the USDA to use state data to remove illegal recipients.
“We sent letters to every governor in America being very clear that no illegal aliens can use SNAP, zero, zero, zero,” Rollins said. “It is time to drastically reform this program, so that we can make sure that those who are truly needy and truly vulnerable are getting what they need and the rest of the corruption goes away so that we can serve the American taxpayer.”
The path to reform likely involves restoring work requirements in order to receive benefits, ending broad categorical eligibility, and reconsidering the 21 percent boost that permanently inflated benefits. Many conservatives have long argued that these changes would save tens of billions and return SNAP to its original purpose as a temporary bridge to prevent starvation, not a lifestyle subsidy.
The USDA’s own Fraud Framework outlines operational fixes like stronger retailer oversight, chip-card technology to curb skimming, and more criminal prosecutions.
States are also taking action, such as limiting SNAP purchases to truly nutritional items. Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah have recently approved limits on soda, candy, and energy drink purchases using SNAP benefits.
Democrats warn that strict eligibility rules risk hurting the poor during a shutdown. But the greater harm is a system that keeps people dependent instead of helping them become self-sufficient.
For decades, federal policy has blurred the line between temporary help and permanent reliance. Incentives in SNAP reward spending every dollar instead of budgeting or price-hunting, which in turn drives up grocery prices for everyone else. Recipients have little reason to economize; taxpayers fund it and then face the inflated prices at checkout.
SNAP reform is both a fiscal and moral test, a measure of whether government aid will become a true ladder out of poverty or continue as a permanent subsidy that rewards dependency.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
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