All SNAP Beneficiaries Will Need to Reapply for Benefits: Agriculture Secretary

Brooke Rollins described SNAP as one of the ‘most corrupt, dysfunctional programs’ in U.S. history. 

A SNAP EBT sign at a gas station in Riverwoods, Ill., on Nov. 1, 2025. Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Nov. 14 that all recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will need to meet reapplication requirements in efforts to “clean up” the food assistance program.

Discussing the levels of fraud that have been uncovered in her department’s audit of state SNAP data, Rollins told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” that the Trump administration’s focus on SNAP is to ensure that taxpayer resources are going to the truly vulnerable and not being drained by fraud and abuse.

She shared on X an interview in which she referenced a statistic from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) audit that revealed SNAP funding was being disbursed to 29 states for a total of nearly 200,000 deceased people.

The remaining 21 mostly Democratic-run states have sued to keep their data from being disclosed to the federal government, she said.

The secretary said that the fraud already uncovered in the audits, with audits from blue states still to come, are “going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it.”

She added that more than 500,000 people were registered twice. She also said the program had experienced a 40 percent increase under the Biden administration.

According to the latest USDA data, about 42 million people—or one in eight Americans—use the federal food program. They receive $177 per person per month, on average, in federally funded benefits, which are issued by state agencies that administer the program.

The requirement to periodically reapply for SNAP benefits with state authorities has long been required in U.S. law to ensure participant eligibility. State administrators already require recipients to recertify their eligibility as often as every six months, and to keep their work history, income, and other relevant information up to date.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, reaffirmed this requirement and required states to immediately enforce the law, and also tightened eligibility requirements for able-bodied adult SNAP recipients with no dependents.

“Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends. Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it,” a USDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work.

“As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States.”

Rollins, in an earlier interview, said that 80 percent of people currently using the program are able to work and described SNAP as one of the “most corrupt, dysfunctional programs” in U.S. history.

Those who choose to reapply would have to verify that they could not survive without it, she said. Rollins argued that the cutoff of some SNAP benefits would also incentivize more illegal immigrants to self-deport.

“In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud,” Rollins said on X at the beginning of November. “The Democrat Party has turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens. They know if the handouts stop, those illegals will go back home, and Democrats will lose 20+ seats after the next census.

“There’s a new sheriff in town. @POTUS will not tolerate waste, fraud, or abuse while hardworking Americans go hungry.”

SNAP beneficiaries became a poignant topic after the USDA ran out of funding for the program during the record-long government shutdown. Distribution of benefits was ordered to resume immediately after Trump signed a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded through Jan. 30, 2026.

“The reduction in maximum allotments for November is no longer in effect,” the USDA stated on Nov. 13. “State agencies should immediately resume issuing combined allotments for November and December for newly certified applicants who apply after the 15th of the month.”

Zachary Stieber and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.