Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said her agency identified [1] fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which served nearly 42 million people in fiscal year 2024 at a federal cost exceeding $100 billion.
Her remarks come as the federal government continues reform efforts, including restrictions on purchasing junk food and soda in several states.
SNAP benefits are used to buy approved food items at more than 261,000 authorized retailers.
Benefits are issued on electronic benefits transfer cards, and monthly amounts vary according to household size and financial conditions.
While states run the day-to-day operations of SNAP, federal authorities fund a portion of the program and supervise statewide administration.
Interest in reviewing and reducing errors in SNAP has persisted for years among policymakers.
Those concerns have intensified as federal reviews identify problems in multiple areas, including benefit trafficking, false information on retailer applications, applicant errors that lead to incorrect benefit amounts, mistakes by state agencies, and scams targeting benefit recipients.
Enough is enough.
SNAP fraud is out of control and hardworking Americans are footing the bill.
In the states that shared their data, there were well over half a million cases of fraud — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Why are other states suing us for asking for the… pic.twitter.com/rS8NKcw9ia [2]
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) November 13, 2025 [3]
Townhall reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture uncovered a $66 million SNAP fraud scheme this year.
The case added to ongoing investigations into misuse of federal nutrition assistance and highlighted several categories of problems.
One category involves trafficking, where retailers or recipients illegally exchange benefits for cash or other prohibited transactions.
Another involves improper retailer applications, where businesses provide false or incomplete information to gain SNAP authorization.
Additional issues arise from household applications that lead to wrong benefit levels, whether caused by mistakes or intentional misstatements.
States also contribute to incorrect benefit amounts through administrative errors or other actions that fall outside program requirements.
A further area of concern involves outside actors who target recipients through scams that result in stolen benefits.
More than 20 states declined to provide SNAP data to the federal government.
The 21 states that refused to send their SNAP data to the USDA are:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
And, of… https://t.co/rCJg254bRt [4] pic.twitter.com/BktoDa1KMB [5]— Mike Netter (@nettermike) November 3, 2025 [6]
The absence of full reporting limits the ability of federal officials to examine error rates, review compliance, and measure the scale of fraud across the entire program.
Federal oversight from fiscal year 2023 showed an estimated 11.7 percent of SNAP benefits—about $10.5 billion—were improper.
Improper payments include benefit amounts that were too high, too low, or issued to households that should not have received them. The figure reflects combined errors across state agencies, retailers, and households.
Federal administrators continue to evaluate SNAP’s structure while enforcing program integrity rules and conducting investigations in cooperation with states.
The mixed responsibilities between federal and state governments complicate oversight efforts, as the federal role includes funding support and supervisory authority, while states manage application procedures, eligibility determinations, and distribution of benefits.
Rollins said an announcement related to the program is expected next week.