Republican Rep. Tom Barrett (MI-07) helped introduce the SNAP Fraud Reporting Act to address rampant fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Specifically, this bill would require states to share all information related to program implementation, including fraud metrics, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Congress.
“Americans deserve to know where their federal tax dollars are going, and thanks to little to no oversight at the state level, they are being recklessly wasted on fraudulent food stamp accounts,” Barrett said in a statement. “Rooting out this fraud and restoring long overdue accountability is a critical step toward giving the families that truly rely on this program for supplemental support the certainty they need to put food on the table.
Early USDA data from 29 states showed that nearly 200,000 deceased individuals' Social Security numbers (SSNs) were fraudulently used to receive SNAP benefits.
Currently, 21 states are suing the USDA to keep their SNAP fraud data hidden from the federal government. Republicans say that those blue states allow illegal aliens to receive taxpayer benefits for food, housing, and other programs. If states shared SNAP data, then the federal government could also expose SNAP fraud.
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— Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden (@DepSecVaden) December 18, 2025
Yet there are some Democrats from Massachusetts that say there is no SNAP fraud.
Here’s $7 million worth of fraud in your own state. https://t.co/yuXwzNAwia
Barrett joined Republican Reps. Dave Taylor (OH-02), Lauren Boebert (CO-04), Barry Moore (AL-01), Nancy Mace (SC-01), Tony Wied (WI-08), Wesley Hunt (TX-38), and Andy Harris (MD-01) in introducing this legislation.
Snap Fraud Reporting Act by scott.mcclallen
According to Propel, a company that provides a mobile app to manage their benefits, an estimated $349 million in SNAP benefits were stolen in the first half of 2025 alone. Additionally, over 670,000 households receiving SNAP assistance had their benefits stolen between 2023 and 2025, totaling $320 million.
One major cause of fraud in the SNAP program is card skimming. This happens when criminals install a card reader onto the point-of-sale machine at a busy location such as gas stations, grocery stores, or liquor stores. These machines copy card information and then criminals deplete the card balances, often overnight or soon after the federal and state government load money onto the cards.
Criminals have stolen $360.4 million of SNAP benefits across the nation from fiscal year 2023 to 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Some states are upgrading or have already upgraded their SNAP cards to shrink fraud.
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Virginia have upgraded or are upgrading their SNAP cards, according to a USDA map that tracks the change.
A separate bill, the Enhanced Cybersecurity for SNAP Act, aims to direct the USDA to update its cybersecurity regulations. The bill, if passed by both chambers and signed into law, would order the USDA to upgrade SNAP cards in every state within two years.
