The government has reopened and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in several states have already seen their full benefits for November restored. But in terms of going back to business as usual for the program, moving forward, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins has signaled major changes on how SNAP benefits will be maintained.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due to alleged fraud.
The secretary said after receiving data on SNAP recipients from 29 red states that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”
“Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re going to find?” she asked during a Thursday appearance on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
“It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it,” she added.
Every state has a periodic recertification process that requires SNAP or food stamp recipients to update their whereabouts and earnings, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most municipalities require updated data every six to 12 months.
“Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it. Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work. As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States. “
WATCH:
🚨JUST IN: The Trump administration will require millions of food aid recipients to recertify their information to receive benefits, part of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' effort to overhaul the program, she told Newsmax on Thursday.
— SANTINO (@MichaelSCollura) November 15, 2025
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance… pic.twitter.com/Mv9cyRfp3R
WATCH:
.@SecRollins on fraud in the SNAP program: "Very big announcements coming next week on this. We are cracking down. We now have a plan to fix it, and we're really, really excited about doing that for the American people." pic.twitter.com/1gZ7uxeBbw
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 13, 2025
While we await Rollins' release of the full guidelines in the next week, in early November, my RedState colleague Ward Clark alluded to some necessary changes to SNAP that could be implemented to reduce the fraud and dependence.
This can be fixed, and the needful actions can and must be a part of Secretary Rollins' reforms. These fixes should include:
- A lifetime limit on benefits. Be it a year, two years, five years, there must be a limit. This multi-generational doom spiral of dependency has to be broken. If people exceed their limits and still have kids they can't afford to feed, they lose their kids. Harsh? Yes. Necessary? If we are to end this cycle, yes.
- Strict limits on how the benefits are administered and how they are used. A weekly draw from a local food bank would be the ideal option: Bulk rice, bulk dry beans, lean chicken or turkey. Milk and so forth, if there are small children involved. If there is no local food bank, recipients get a large, 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, printed boldly with "GOVERNMENT FOOD VOUCHER," listing specifically what items may be purchased.
- Lifetime bans on anyone convicted of defrauding or abusing the system. Kids involved? See above.
- Work requirements. Anyone with any office skills can spend 20 hours a week doing clerical work for the state or local governments. Everyone else gets an orange vest, a trash bag, and one of those spike sticks, and is sent out to spend 20 hours a week picking up trash along the roadways.
Dive Deeper: New Welfare Wake-Up Call: Rollins Slams Corrupt SNAP System
SNAP Judgments: How the Program Can Be Reformed
The strict limits on food Clark mentions could well be the intent behind "MAHA Boxes," which Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced in September as part of the FY 2026 budget. The plan is to eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which supplies shelf-stable foods, and redirect those funds into the distribution of healthy food boxes full of fresh food for seniors and needy recipients supplied by local farmers and ranchers. Kennedy has tasked the USDA to instruct the states on how to implement this, and certain states like Pennsylvania and Maine have already set this program, or a variation of a healthy produce program in motion.
USDA will let states restrict SNAP purchases of junk food and deliver “MAHA Boxes” of whole, healthy foods.
— MAHA Action (@MAHA_Action) September 9, 2025
FDA is also moving to ban petroleum-based food dyes like Red 40, while closing the GRAS loophole that lets untested additives into food. pic.twitter.com/jwA08cXSuA
And the post-shutdown revised guidelines, issued by USDA Deputy Under Secretary Patrick A. Penn, signal that work requirements are back in place and are a priority.
Prior FNS guidance encouraged state agencies to delay further obligations until federal funding was restored. Please resume normal employment and training activities immediately. It is a priority of this Administration to ensure those that can work do; therefore, FNS is ready to provide technical assistance for critical employment and training services that help SNAP households gain job skills and find work.
As if on cue, the left has reawakened their cry that Trump is starving children, deeming the plan to require verification of need as bordering "on evil."
The Trump plan to make everyone reapply for SNAP benefits borders on evil. Under normal conditions, approving SNAP takes months, now imagine flooding an already overwhelmed system with 40M brand new applications that must be processed and reviewed. Elderly, disabled, and children…
— CatholicBob (@catholicbob) November 15, 2025
The Trump plan to make everyone reapply for SNAP benefits borders on evil. Under normal conditions, approving SNAP takes months, now imagine flooding an already overwhelmed system with 40M brand new applications that must be processed and reviewed. Elderly, disabled, and children (most of the SNAP beneficiaries) will be cut off for easily a year or more. Hopefully that isn’t the intention, but it really looks like it is.
The government setting its parameters to provide a "hand up," rather than a "hand out" is a wise move that reflects accountability to the taxpayers. We will know more when Secretary Rollins releases the guidance, and it will be up to each state to do its due diligence in figuring out how these new programs and parameters can be implemented. In the meantime, reform is necessary and these initial steps are not only required, but reasonable.
Editor's Note: President Trump is on board with the MAHA agenda, ensuring Americans can fight chronic disease and get the healthy food and resources they deserve.
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