Those with SNAP will have to reapply for benefits: Agriculture Secretary Rollins
The Trump administration plans on having people reapply for their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Newsmax Thursday that this is to “make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through … food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”
Rollins said in an interview on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” that she received SNAP data on receipients from 29 red states. This data, she said, showed that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”
SNAP ran out of federal funding during the recently-ended government shutdown, leading to many legal battles over it. About 42 million people, or 1 in 8 Americans, receive these benefits. State agencies that give them out already require participants to be recertify their information every six to 12 months.
Rollins has criticized SNAP as “corrupt,” and said the Trump administration uncovered “massive fraud” in the program. However, experts previously told NPR that the statistics Rollins cites need more detail and context about how they are calculated.
“We have real questions about how they’ve arrived at these numbers,” said Nicole Schneidman, an attorney with the nonprofit Protect Democracy, in an interview with NPR. “One thing that’s really important for people to keep in mind is that 42 million people across the country receive SNAP on a monthly basis. And so these numbers that are being referenced are trivial in the grand scheme of the millions of people across the country who are receiving SNAP.”
The United States Department of Agriculture states on its website that it works with state and federal partners, law enforcement, SNAP retailers, electronic benefit transfer (EBT) processors and others to prevent fraud. Individuals who break rules by lying about their identity or income, or selling their benefits, could see disqualification from SNAP, criminal charges and fines, as well as prison time.
Because of the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed earlier this year, SNAP will look different for many in 2026. The legislation expanded work requirements and tightened eligibility rules for SNAP.
Who uses SNAP?
Households with a gross monthly income at or below 130% of the federal poverty level or a net monthly income at or below 100% of that level are eligible for SNAP. Limits are higher in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Virgin Islands, according to Pew Research Center,
Crunching the numbers from the Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Income and Program Participation from 2023, Pew found that nearly 23 million SNAP recipients (65%) were adults, and 12.4 million (35%) were children in that year.
White people made up 44.2% of adult SNAP recipients and 24.8% of child recipients in 2023. Almost 27% of adults recipients and 32.3% were Black, and Hispanics, who the census says can be of any race, accounted for 24.2% of adults and 40.7% of children who received SNAP.
A majority of the children (96.9%) and adults (81.1%) who had SNAP benefits in 2023 were born in the United States. Undocumented immigrants are unable to get these benefits under the law, though certain legal non-citizens are able to. The Big Beautiful Bill limits this to U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), Cuban and Haitian entrants and Compact of Free Association (COFA) citizens.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
