The drive to reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program continues as the agency that administers SNAP works to identify and eliminate fraud in the system. The United States Department of Agriculture now has some numbers, and they are staggering.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Monday that all current SNAP recipients will be required to reapply and be recertified as eligible. That may not be the end of the reforms.

“Recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which supports more than 40 million Americans, will need to demonstrate that their households still meet eligibility requirements to continue receiving benefits.”

This is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and it is appropriate to make sure recipients are properly screened.

Some of the states have provided numbers on the matter of fraud uncovered in the SNAP program. Those numbers are a real eye-opener.

New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal the states where the nation’s largest food assistance program is costing taxpayers the most through fraud and misuse.

Last year SNAP cost 99.8 billion dollars with participants receiving an average of 187 dollars in monthly benefits according to federal data.

As part of her review of SNAP benefits, Rollins said she directed states in February to share data on recipients. So far only 29 states, mostly Republican-led, have complied.

It would be interesting to see the data from the other 21 states given that they would seem to be mostly Democrat-led.

Even the limited data has already uncovered significant misuse. This includes 186,000 deceased individuals receiving benefits and about 500,000 people collecting SNAP assistance in more than one state.

Initial data from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service show Alabama leading the nation with more than 26,000 stolen SNAP benefit claims. California follows with 25,818 stolen benefit claims. New York ranks third with 25,210.

Nationwide more than 226,000 fraudulent SNAP benefit claims and more than 691,000 unauthorized transactions have been approved.

Fraudulent transactions are categorized as purchases that SNAP recipients did not authorize. These often result from card skimming, cloning, or other forms of electronic theft.

These stolen benefits are expected to cost the government 102 million dollars in the first quarter of 2025 alone.

The fraud numbers represent just what has been uncovered so far from the 29 states that have complied with the data request. The actual scope of fraud could be much larger once information from all 50 states is collected and analyzed.

The discovery of 186,000 dead people still receiving benefits is particularly shocking. This means taxpayer money has been flowing to bank accounts or addresses of people who are no longer alive, likely for months or even years in some cases.

The finding that about 500,000 people are collecting SNAP assistance in more than one state reveals a major flaw in how the system tracks recipients. People are managing to double dip by claiming benefits in multiple states simultaneously.

Secretary Rollins requirement that all current recipients reapply and be recertified represents a major overhaul of how SNAP operates. With more than 40 million Americans currently receiving benefits, the recertification process will be massive.

The SNAP program needs major reform beyond just recertification. Anyone on the program who has money for cigarettes, tattoos, acrylic nails or hair extensions should be removed from the program. If they have money for those things, they do not need taxpayers paying for their food.

Democrat-led states that have refused to comply with the data sharing request are raising obvious questions about what they might be hiding. If their programs are running cleanly with minimal fraud, they should have no problem sharing the information.

The refusal to cooperate suggests these states may have even worse fraud problems than the Republican-led states that have already shared their data. The numbers from California and New York, two of the most liberal states in the nation, already show massive fraud.

Alabama, California and New York leading in stolen benefit claims shows this is not just a red state or blue state problem. Fraud is happening across the country regardless of which party controls state government.

The category of unauthorized transactions being separate from fraudulent claims means there are two different types of theft happening. Some people are making false claims to get benefits they do not deserve. Others are having their legitimate benefits stolen through electronic theft methods.

Card skimming and cloning represent sophisticated criminal operations targeting SNAP recipients. Thieves are using technology to steal benefit card information and drain accounts before recipients can use their assistance.

The 102 million dollar cost estimate for just the first quarter of 2025 projects to over 400 million dollars per year in stolen benefits. That is a massive amount of taxpayer money being stolen from a program meant to help hungry Americans.

These fraud numbers make the strongest possible case for major reform of the SNAP program and all taxpayer-funded entitlement programs.