Rollins Urges Minnesota to Recertify SNAP Recipients Amid Fraud Allegations

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said failure to comply would put Minnesota’s participation in SNAP at risk.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in Washington on Dec. 8, 2025. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has urged Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to recertify Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to ensure they meet eligibility requirements in response to fraud allegations.

In a letter dated Dec. 16, Rollins stated that Minnesota is mandated to participate in a SNAP pilot project aimed at enhancing program efficiency in light of alleged “ongoing fraud affecting federally funded benefits” within the state, without elaborating.

“@GovTimWalz, there is nothing you can do NOW that changes the fact you stood idly by as criminals stole MILLIONS from the American taxpayer and hungry families,” she said in a post on X. “The attached requires you to verify SNAP participants in the next 30 days. Tick. Tock.”

The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families is required to recertify all SNAP households in Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, and Wright counties within 30 days, according to the letter.

The recertification process includes reviewing the income and resources of any excluded household members, conducting in-person interviews, and using federal eligibility tools such as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, it stated.

The letter states that failure to participate in the pilot project could lead to noncompliance procedures and put Minnesota’s participation in SNAP at risk.

Rollins had previously said that high-risk retailers in Minnesota will need to reauthorize to accept food stamps to ensure the benefits go to eligible recipients.

“@GovTimWalz, welfare benefits are for the truly needy. Not bad actors. Not criminals. And not for illegals,” Rollins said in a Dec. 11 post on X.

In a Dec. 15 statement, Walz outlined the steps his office has taken to combat fraud in Minnesota and announced the appointment of former FBI agent Tim O’Malley as director of program integrity across state government.

“Our state’s generosity has been taken advantage of by an organized group of fraudsters who’ve put their greed and self-dealing above the needs of children, seniors and people with disabilities,” he said.

Walz said the state has hired investigators, auditors, and law enforcement to address fraud and engaged an outside firm to audit payments in high-risk programs.

He noted that O’Malley will “work across state government to root out fraud and protect taxpayer dollars.” His office said that O’Malley also previously served as superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and a reformer in the archdiocese.

“The buck stops with me, and my focus now is on ensuring that not a single dollar falls into the wrong hands,” the governor stated.

The Epoch Times reached out to Walz’s office for comment on Rollins’s letter but did not hear back by publication time.