Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins conducts a information convention with Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., within the U.S. Capitol on the federal government shutdown on Friday, October 31, 2025.
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday threatened to chop off federal funding to Democratic-leaning states over their alleged refusal to share SNAP program knowledge with the Trump administration.
The administration “will start to cease transferring federal funds into these states” beginning subsequent week “till they comply,” Rollins informed President Donald Trump throughout a Cupboard assembly on the White Home.
Rollins mentioned her division wants the state-by-state knowledge on the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, generally known as meals stamps, “to root out this fraud and to guard the American taxpayer.”
The secretary mentioned the U.S. Division of Agriculture in February had requested all 50 states “for the primary time to show over their knowledge to the federal authorities.”
She mentioned 29 “pink states” complied, however 21 “blue states proceed to say no.”
The noncompliant states embody California, New York and Minnesota, Rollins mentioned. The governors’ places of work for every state didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s requests for remark.
A USDA spokesperson later laid out in an announcement to CNBC, “28 States and Guam joined us on this combat; however states like California, New York, and Minnesota, amongst 19 different blue States, maintain combating us.”
The division had “established a SNAP integrity workforce” to investigate state knowledge and “finish indiscriminate welfare fraud,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“We have now despatched Democrat States yet one more request for knowledge, and in the event that they fail to conform, they are going to be supplied with formal warning that USDA will pull their administrative funds.”
Almost 42 million individuals benefited from SNAP every month in fiscal yr 2024, most of whom are kids, aged or individuals with disabilities, in keeping with USDA’s official web site.
Rollins on the Cupboard assembly mentioned SNAP suffers from “rampant fraud.” However a reality sheet from the USDA’s Meals and Vitamin Service, citing fiscal yr 2023 knowledge, says, “Nearly all of SNAP advantages are used as meant.” Out of almost 262,000 approved SNAP retailers, 1,980 had been disqualified and 561 had been fined in that point interval, in keeping with the actual fact sheet.
— CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons contributed to this report.