United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has started reforming the Supplemental Nutrition Program that feeds 41 million people, but there’s more room to stamp out fraud.
The USDA has worked with at least 12 states to stop SNAP recipients from using SNAP benefits on soda and junk food.
Eight states have upgraded or are upgrading their cards after criminals stole roughly $322 million in benefits meant for real people
Alabama, Oklahoma, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia are upgrading their cards.
California has already upgraded its SNAP cards after the government paid about $20 million to replace stolen benefits in California in January 2024. By November 2025, reported EBT theft dropped by 83 percent, the state reported.
In one case, a federal employee helped steal $66 million in SNAP benefits.
We need better guardrails in the SNAP program to provide healthier staple food to families and to make it easier for the state and federal government to discover fraud.
For example, Michigan has about 10,000 retailers that can redeem SNAP benefits. Of those, about 5,000 are convenience stores, 661 are grocery stores, 340 are farmers and markets, 293 are in the restaurant meals program, 191 are specialty stores, and 2,000 are labeled as “other.”
A substantial number of SNAP retailers in Wayne County, the state’s most-populated county, are sketchy gas stations, liquor stores, and party stores.
These places carry the minimum staple foods to get people in the door: Fruits or vegetables, meat, poultry, or fish dairy products; and breads or cereals.
You can spend SNAP benefits at many fast food restaurants in Michigan, including KFC, McDonald's, and more.
MI RMP Restaurant List by scott.mcclallen
🚨 BREAKING: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just revealed the MASSIVE amount of fraud in SNAP
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 13, 2025
5,000 dead people receive it, and 500,000 people are receiving it TWICE using the SAME NAME
CUT THEM ALL OFF AND REFER THEM TO DOJ! pic.twitter.com/dwlgwqnQ57
🚨 BREAKING: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just revealed the MASSIVE amount of fraud in SNAP
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 13, 2025
5,000 dead people receive it, and 500,000 people are receiving it TWICE using the SAME NAME
CUT THEM ALL OFF AND REFER THEM TO DOJ! pic.twitter.com/dwlgwqnQ57
🚨 BREAKING: USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says she will be moving to HALT federal funding to states who refuse to turn over SNAP data to help root out fraud
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 2, 2025
“21 states including California, New York, and Minnesota, blue states continue to say no. As of next week, we have begun… pic.twitter.com/I4w8kBxrb8
SNAP fraud is out of control, and the numbers we HAVE prove it.
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) November 13, 2025
Data from just 29 states uncovered nearly 200,000 people with dead people’s social security numbers… Meanwhile, 21 states are suing to keep their data hidden.
Why block transparency unless the truth is worse than… pic.twitter.com/XAjHKncCfp
