The Trump administration says it may withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from recipients in 22 states and Washington, D.C  starting as early as next week, unless the states in question provide information on those receiving the assistance to the federal government. The states have argued that the information being requested is private, and that handing it over would be a violation of privacy laws.

On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins addressed the issue at a Cabinet meeting. Rollins said that cooperation from all 50 states is necessary in order “to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer,” doubling down on previous statements alleging that SNAP benefits are going to people who should not be receiving them, or the deceased. “We’ve arrested more than 120 people with SNAP fraud,” Rollins said in a recent News Nation interview. 

A USDA spokesperson said, per Newsweek, “USDA established a SNAP integrity team to analyze not only data provided by states, but to scrub all available information to end indiscriminate welfare fraud. 28 States and Guam joined us in this fight; but states like California, New York, and Minnesota, among 19 other blue States, keep fighting us.”

While fraud in the program has been a frequent talking point from the USDA, there isn’t a lot of research to back the claim that SNAP fraud is widespread. According to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report from April 2025, “SNAP fraud is rare, according to available data and reports, but there is no single data point that reflects all the forms of fraud in SNAP.”

Last week, officials in the 22 states that are pushing back over the issue, and Washington, D.C., sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The suit alleges that the USDA is “arbitrarily” excluding many lawful permanent residents from receiving SNAP benefits by misinterpreting new eligibility provisions set forth by the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”. The legislation expanded work requirements to include those ages 55 to 64, homeless people, and more. According to the suit, the legislation is being used to prevent “individuals who once held the status of refugees, individuals granted asylum, or parolees from gaining eligibility for SNAP” once they become citizens.

Prior to Rollins’ latest statement, SNAP has already been under siege in recent months with the government shutdown quickly impacting the program. On Nov. 3, the Trump administration said that it would pay just 50% of recipients’ normal SNAP allotments for the month, leaving millions of Americans wondering how they would make ends meet. 

Rollins also recently stated that all 42 million SNAP recipients would have to reapply in order to maintain their benefits, in an assertion that some leaders have pushed back on. Last month, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Luján addressed Rollins and the USDA in a letter advocating against the organizations efforts to force SNAP recipients to reapply for assistance, calling it “more red tape” that will limit families’ ability to receive aid. “This reapplication requirement comes after repeated efforts to deny Americans in need of essential nutrition assistance,” the Senators wrote in the letter.

It continued, “In addition to unprecedented cuts to SNAP enacted earlier this summer, decisions to disrupt food assistance during the shutdown have created additional uncertainty. We are therefore troubled that the Administration could choose, at this moment, to add additional red tape that creates duplicative and unnecessary barriers to accessing nutrition assistance for families.”